


A blast ftom the past. Sort of.

by NyxiNight



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Don't Like Don't Read, F/M, How Do I Tag, I'm Bad At Tagging, Reading the Books, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 06:28:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13452462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxiNight/pseuds/NyxiNight
Summary: What happens when three teenagers apear in the middle of the winter solictise meeting with a book?Well, this is going to be fun.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't usually write, but I wanted to try.  
> I am from Sweden so my grammar is probably pretty bad, but I hope you can read it anyway.

 

 

A blast from the past…. Sort of.

 

 

Prologue

 

It was the winter solstice and the god were…… let’s say _discussing,_ very important things. Like if air disasters were more spectacular than sea disaster or the other way around. Another very important topic that was discussed were of course kidnapping and cereal. As you can see or more like read, they were very, very busy, so it’s understandable that they were choked when three teenagers fell from the ceiling. Fortunately for the falling uninvited guests Athena, being the goddess of wisdom, predicted what would happen if the teenagers hit the floor from that altitude and created sofas to catch them. Two of the falling guests hit the sofas while the third hit the floor with a groan.

“Why is it always me?” the kid who hit the floor said.

“It’s not like it hurt Perce.” Chuckled the other two.

“That’s not the point!” said `Perce´.

Zeus cleared his throat.

“Who are you and how dare you interrupt this very important meeting?” you could hear the anger in his voice.

The teenagers stood up and the gods could see that there were two boys and a girl. The girl had electric blue eyes, spikey black hair with a silver tiara and punk clothes. One of the boys had shaggy black hair and dark eyes while wearing dark clothes, while the other boy had dark hair and sea green eyes.

The girl stepped forward.

“Didn’t you summon us?”

Before anyone could answer there was a flash and a book with a note attached appeared on the floor in front of the teenagers. The boy with sea green eyes picked up the note and read it quietly to himself.

“I think you’re supposed to read it out loud, idiot!” the girl said with a smirk.

“Oh, right.” The boy laughed nervously.

_“Dear Gods, Goddess and Demigods!_

_We have sent these demigods to the past to read books about Percy Jacksons life. We want you to read the book and when you’re done with this one we will send the next one and so on and so forth. You are **not** allowed to harm the demigods under any circumstances. If you’re lucky you may even change the future, but be careful, you don’t know if you change it for the better or for the worst._

_Have fun!_

_The fates._

_Ps. We may send more demigods as the story progresses._

Everyone sat in silence and considered the note.

“Well,” Athena said. “It is not wise to ignore the fates so we should start the book. But first the demigods have to introduce themselves.”

The others turned to the teenagers. The boy with dark eyes was pushed forward by the other two.

“My name is Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. And before you start yelling at my dad, I was born before the oath and put in the Lotus Hotel and Casino.”

Zeus who had started to look like he would blow a gasket, calmed down some when Nico was done talking.

The girl cleared her throat.

“I’m Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and hunter of Artemis.” She said with a smile at Artemis who smiled back.

The last boy stepped forward and looked uncomfortable with all the attention.

“Eh… I’m Percy...”

“Perseus.” Coughed Nico while Thalia laughed.

Percy glared at them and turned back to the gods.

“As I said before I was interrupted,” here he glared at Nico and Thalia again who only smiled innocently back. “My name is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon.”

At that Zeus looked ready to blast him of Olympus but was stopped by Hera who put a hand on his arm, whispering that they were not allowed to harm the demigods. He did not look happy about that but calmed down.

“Who wants to read first?” Hera asked in what she thought was a nice tone bit came across more condescending.

“I’ll read.” Athena offered and grabbed the book from the floor.

**_“I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher.”_ **


	2. I accendentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for bad grammar. And I should probably say that I don't own the Percy Jackson series.  
> Anyway here's the next chapter, enjoy.

 

**“I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher.”**

 

“Accidentally?” Nico looked thoughtful. “I would do it on purpose.”

Hermes, Apollo and Ares nodded enthusiastically. Hermes and Apollo because the hated anything to do with learning and Ares, well he just loves bloodshed and fighting.

 

**“Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.”**

 

Thalia and Nico hummed in agreement.

 

**“If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:”**

 

“Noooo…. We are all going to die, Percy is giving advice. Run Thalia, save yourself.”

Nico screamed dramatically while hiding behind the sofa. Thalia was laughing her ass of while Percy sank down in his seat with a pout.

 

**“Close the book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.”**

 

“That won’t work, sea spawn.” Athena said.

 

**“Being a half-blood is dangerous. It’s scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.”**

 

“Well, he’s not wrong.” Thalia admits. 

“Do all half-bloods feel like this?” Hestia asked sadly.

“Not everybody, but most.” Percy shrugged.

 

**“If you’re a normal kid, reading this because you think it’s fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.”**

 

“Oh, now I get it.” Thalia said with a snap of her fingers. “You’re delusional.” 

“Shut up, pinecone face.” Percy glared at her. 

“Make me, kelp head!”

“Come at me, bark girl.” 

Before a real fight could break out Athena started to read.

 

**“But if you recognize yourself in these pages – if you feel something stirring inside – stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it’s only a matter of time before _they_ sense it too, and they’ll come for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” **

 

“You didn’t warn me, how could you?!” Nico started to sob on Thalia’s shoulder until she punched him in the arm.

 

**“My name is Percy Jackson.”**

 

“No,” Nico started. “I’m pretty sure it’s Peter Johnson.” 

Both Thalia and Percy laughed at him while the god looked confused.

 

**“I’m twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I troubled kid?”**

 

“Yes!!” Thalia and Nico screamed.

 

**“Yeah. You could say that.”**

 

There was laughter all around the throne room. 

“You agreed with them.” Apollo laughed so hard that he fell out of his throne. “I’m okay.” That just made everyone laugh harder. When they all calmed down Athena started to read again.

 

**“I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but thing really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan – twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.”**

 

“That sounds…” Athena started but was interrupted by Poseidon. 

“Boring!” He said in a loud voice.  Athena glared at him but kept reading at a look from Hera.

 

**“I know – it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading the trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.”**

 

“That sounds like Chiron.” Dionysus yawned.

“You’re actually listening, Mr. D?” Nico asked shocked. 

“Of course not, Nathan.” Was the snapped answer.

 

**“You wouldn’t think he’d be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn’t put me to sleep.”**

 

“You sleep in class?!” Athena screeched. 

“Yes, because of the dyslexia and ADHD the teachers treats me as if I’m stupid or they ignore me completely, so it’s easier to just sleep.” Percy explained.

“Is it really that bad?” Athena asked. The demi-gods just nodded.

 

**“I hoped the trip would be okay. At least I hoped that for once I wouldn’t get in trouble.”**

 

“You jinxed it.” Hermes shouted and was promptly hit by Artemis.

 

**“Boy, was I wrong.”**

 

“Told you. Please, don’t hit me.” Hermes hid behind Apollo.

 

**“See, bad things happened to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn’t aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.”**

 

“What were you aiming for?” Nico asked.

“I wasn’t.” was Percy’s embarrassed answer.

 

**“And the time before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong leaver on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And before that…. Well, you get the idea.”**

 

“You are a genius.” Apollo laughed. 

“We’re going to have a meeting later so you can tell me more.” Hermes told Percy.

 

**“This field trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and ketchup sandwich.”**

 

“I have heard of peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, but peanut butter-and ketchup? That sounds disgusting.” Hades said getting surprised and choked looks. “What, you can’t tell me you haven’t heard of PB&J sandwiches.” 

“Oh, we have.” Dementer said. “I just didn’t a bottom feeding, daughter stealing, low life like you would know.” Nico looked pissed, put Hades just smirked.

“’ _Bottom feeding, daughter stealing, low life.’_ It took you the whole year to come up with that, didn’t it?” Everyone laughed at Dementers red face while Hades looked smug. Nico sent a proud look at his dad.

 

**“Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must’ve been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of that, he was crippled.”**

 

“I’m so telling Grover when we get back.” Thalia said with an evil glint in her eyes.

“Please don’t, he’s going to kill me.” Percy pleaded.

“I know.” Thalia cackled evilly. The gods just looked at them like they had a few screws lose. Which they probably do, but that’s not the point.

 

**“He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don’t let that fool you. You should’ve seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.”**

 

“Grover.” The demi-gods groaned.

 

**“Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn’t do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death-by-in-school-suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.”**

 

“Can they do that?” Poseidon asked, worried. No one answered him.

 

**“’I’m going to kill her,’ I mumbled.”**

 

“Do it, do it, do it,” Ares chanted, bouncing in his throne.

 

**“Grover tried to calm me down. ‘It’s okay. I like peanut butter.’ He dodged another piece of Nancy’s lunch. ‘That’s it.’**

 

Ares was bouncing so much he almost fell out of his throne.

 

**“I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.”**

 

“Oh, come on.” Ares looked very disappointed. He started to pout like a six-year-old and sank down in his seat. “This book sucks.”

 

**“’You’re already on probation,’ he reminded me. ‘You know who’ll get blamed if anything happens.’ Looking back on it, I wish I’d decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would’ve been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.”**

 

“That does not sound good, not good at all.” Poseidon was pale and sweating while he was mumbling to himself and holding his trident in an iron grip.

 

**“Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.”**

 

“Longer than that, kid.” Hermes said impersonating Athena. He was then attacked by owls, for some reason.

 

**“He gathered us around a four-metre-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a _stele_ , for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.” **

 

“What sort of teacher is she?” Athena sounded annoyed. “If the sea spawn wants to learn something she should help him, not hinder him.” Everyone just stared at her until she started to read again.

 

**“Mrs. Dodds was this little maths teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

 

Ares got this manic look in his eyes that made him look a bit unhinged, not saying that he was hinged or sane in the first place.

 

**“She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last maths teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.”**

 

“Where are the horns and the tail?” Nico asked staring intensely at Poseidon. He got weird looks from all the gods. “What, he already has the pitchfork.”

“That’s a trident, Nico.” Percy said slowly.

“Trident. Pitchfork. It doesn’t matter what you call it, they look the same.”

“You’ll have to excuse Nico, I think he was dropped on his head as ha kid.” Thalia explained. Athena started to read before Nico could retort so he just stuck his tongue out at Thalia.

 

**“She would point her crocked finger at me and say, ‘Now, honey,’ real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. One time, after she’d made me ease answers out of old maths workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn’t think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me real serious and said, ‘You’re absolutely right.’”**

 

“Grover.” Thalia groaned. “Way to blow your cover.”

 

**“Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the _stele_ , and I turned around and said, ‘Will you _shut up_?’ It came out louder than I meant it to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. **

**‘Mr. Jackson,’ he said, ‘did you have a comment?’ My face was totally red. I said, ‘No, sir.’ Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the _stele_.**

**‘Perhaps you’ll tell us what this picture represents?’ I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

**‘That’s Kronos eating his kids, right?’**

**‘Yes,’ Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. ‘And he did this because….’**

**‘Well…’ I racked my brain to remember. ‘Kronos was the king god, and…’**

 

“You insolent child!!!” Zeus thundered, and by that, I mean that there was thunder and lightning all around Olympus for dramatic effect. 

“Calm down, husband.” Hera said, “Remember, we are not allowed to harm the demi-god.”

“But he…” Zeus pouted.

“I know dear, but it isn’t his fault that he’s stupid, he was born that way.” Hera said with a sneer aimed at Percy.

 

**“God?’ Mr. Brunner asked.**

**‘Titan,’ I corrected myself.’ And… he didn’t trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.’”**

 

“Ha, told you mother loved me best.” Zeus said, preening like a peacock.

“It wasn’t because she loved you best.” Poseidon started.

“More like, you were the only one who looked like a rock.” Hades finished, high-fiving Poseidon.

 

**“’And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-‘**

**‘Eeew!’ said one of the girls behind me.**

**'-and there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans,’ I continued, ‘and the gods won.’**

 

“And the price for shortening the most information into just a few sentences goes to…. Percy Jackson!” Hermes said while giving Percy a stuffed purple unicorn for a price. Everybody else chuckled at the antics of the idiot known as Hermes.

 

**“Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, ‘Like we’re going to use this in real life. Like it’s going to say on our job applications, _‘Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.’_ **

 

“Well, if you’re going to be an historian or a tour guide at a museum, you would need to know.” Surprisingly it was Aphrodite who said this.

Apollo went over to her and put a hand on her forehead, “Well, you don’t have a fever. Are you feeling alright?”

Hermes was chuckling, which became full blown laughter when Aphrodite slapped Apollo across the face. He walked pack to his throne and said, “Oh, shut up.” to Hermes while rubbing his sore cheek.

“That was a really good answer, Aphrodite.” Athena complimented and the goddess of loved beamed.

 

**“’And why, Mr. Jackson,’ Brunner said, ‘to paraphrase Miss Bobofit’s excellent question, does this matter in real life?’**

**“’Busted,’ Grover muttered.**

**‘Shut up,’ Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got in trouble, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar hears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. ‘I don’t know, sir.'**

**‘I see.’ Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. ‘Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan’s stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it’s time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?’”**

 

“Happy note? _Happy note_? Is he insane?” Hades said.

“Yeah, you would know all about insanity, wouldn’t you?” Dementer smirked.

 

**“The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing eachother around and acting like doofuses.”**

 

“When don’t boys act like doofuses?” Artemis sighed. Percy opened his mouth to protest, but then he thought about it, and closed his mouth with an agreeing nod to Artemis. Artemis looked shocked that a boy would admit to something like that.

 

**“Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, ‘Mr. Jackson.’ I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned towards Mr. Brunner.**

**‘Sir?’**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn’t let you go – intense brown eyes that could’ve been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**‘You must learn the answer to my question,’ Mr. Brunner told me.**

**‘About the Titans?’**

**‘About real life. And how your studies apply to it.’**

**‘Oh.’**

**‘What you learn from me,’ he said, ‘is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.’ I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.”**

 

“He only does it because he wants you to succeed.” Hestia said kindly.

 

**“I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armour and shouted: ‘What ho!’ and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above C- in my life. No – he didn’t expect me to be _as good;_ he expected me to be _better._ And I just couldn’t learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one sad look at the _stele,_ like he’d been at the girl’s funeral. He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. **

 

“I’m hungry.” Nico said quietly. 

“Me to.” Percy, Thalia, Hermes and Apollo agreed.

“Here.” Hestia said, snapping her fingers, everybody now had a sandwich in their lap. “This will tide you over until lunch.”

 

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I’d ever seen over the city.”**

 

Suspicious looks were thrown at Zeus, who had found a really interesting lose tread on his shirt.

 

**“I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We’d had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.”**

 

Poseidon started to whistle a fishermans tune, while everyone where looking between him and Zeus.

 

**“Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady’s bag, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn’t seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn’t know we were from _that_ school – the school for loser freaks who couldn’t make it elsewhere.” **

 

“Did it work?” Apollo asked, but got no answer.

 

**“’Detention?’ Grover asked.**

**‘Nha,’ I said. ‘Not from Brunner. I just wish he’d lay off me sometimes. I mean – I’m not a genius.’ Grover didn’t say anything for a while.**

**Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, ‘Can I have your apple?’”**

 

There was a stunned silence, then, one by one, everyone started to laugh. Well almost everyone. Hera didn’t because she doesn’t have a sense of humor and Artemis was shaking her head and said, “So typical, boys and their stomachs.”

 

**“I didn’t have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom’s apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn’t seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home.”**

 

“Mama’s boy.” Ares taunted with a sneer.

“Yes I am.” Percy said proudly. Hera smiled and thought, _‘That’s how family should be.’_

 

**“She’d hug me and be glad to see me, but she’d be disappointed, too. She’d send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn’t be able to stand that sad look she’d give me.”**

 

“You’re a sweet boy.” Hera smiled at Percy, who looked freaked out, because when does Hera do _nice_ to demi-gods.

 

**“Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like motorized café table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends – I guess she’d gotten tired of stealing from tourists – and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover’s lap.**

**‘Oops.’ She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.”**

 

“First of all: That is not an attractive look.” Aphrodite said. “Second: I think this Nancy Bobofit, has a crush on Percy. I mean, you don’t act like she does without wanting attention from someone, and she basically just picks on Grover because he is Percy’s friend.”

Percy had a horrified look on his face which then turned green and he ran out of the room. A little while later Percy came back into the room and sat down beside Nico and told Athena to read.

 

**“I tried to stay cool. The school counsellor had told me a million times, ‘Count to ten, get control of your temper.’ But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.”**

 

Oh, she’s going to get it now.” Nico said and laughed like a maniac. Thalia also smiled with a evil look in her eyes.

 

**“I don’t remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, ‘Percy pushed me!’**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering:**

**‘Did you see –‘**

**‘- the water –‘**

**‘- like it grabbed her –‘**

**I didn’t know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.”**

 

“Awesome!” Apollo, Hermes and Nico screamed. Artemis promptly hit Hermes and Apollo, while Thalia hit Nico.

 

**“As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I done something she’d been waiting for all semester.**

**‘Now, honey –‘**

**‘I know,’ I grumbled. ‘A month erasing textbooks.’”**

 

“Never guess your punishment. That’s rule #6” Hermes said seriously.

“There’s rules?” Percy looked confused.

“Yeah, there is a whole book. You can borrow it if you want.” Hermes smiled.

“Eh, no thanks, I think I’m good.” Percy said nervously.

“Your loss.” Hermes shrugged.

 

**“That wasn’t the right thing to say.**

**‘Come with me,’ Mrs. Dodds said.**

**‘Wait!’ Grover yelped. ‘It was me. I pushed her.’ I stared at him, stunned. I couldn’t believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.”**

 

“That was very brave of him.” Hestia hummed.         

 

**“She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**‘I don’t think so, Mr. Underwood,’ she said.**

**‘But –‘**

**‘You – _will_ – stay – here.’ **

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**‘It’s okay, man,’ I told him. ‘Thanks for trying.’**

**‘Honey,’ Mrs. Dodds barked at me. ‘ _Now.’_  **

**Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I’ll – kill – you – later stare.”**

 

“It’s not as good as mine.” Nico bragged.

“Of course not,” Percy said, ruffling Nico’s hair. “You are the son of the god of the Underworld and the dead after all.” Nico looked so proud of being the son of Hades, that his father had to smile.

 

**“I then turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn’t there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How’d she get there so fast? I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank space behind it. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.”**

 

“Sadly not, son.” Poseidon said nervously.

 

**“I wasn’t so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disapeard again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. Okay, I thought. She’s going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.”**

 

“Oh yes, one with sparkly kittens on it.” Percy mumbled sarcastically.

“What?” Thalia asked.

“Nothing, dear cousin.” Percy smiled.

 

**“But apparently that wasn’t the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally coughed up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would’ve been nervous. It’s weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it….”**

 

“She wouldn’t, right?” Athena asked.

“Well, that depends which gods are on it.” Percy shrugged. Athena tried to ask more but Percy refused to answer.

 

**“’You’ve been giving us problems, honey,’ she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’**

**She tugged on the cuffs on her leather jacket. ‘Did you really think you would get away with it?’ The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She’s a teacher, I thought nervously. It’s not like she’s going to hurt me.”**

 

Poseidon was looking pale as he muttered _‘He’s fine, he’s sitting in this room right now, he’s fine,’_ quietly to himself.

 

**“I said, ‘I’ll – I’ll try harder, ma’am.’**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**‘We are not fools, Percy Jackson,’ Mrs. Dodds said. ‘It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.’**

**I didn’t know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must’ve found the illegal stash of candy I’d been selling out of my dorm room.”**

 

“There’s hope for you yet, young one.” Hermes stated.

“Don’t corrupt my son, Hermes.” Poseidon snarled.

“I would never,” Hermes sounded offended at the mere prospect, but then he winked at Percy.

 

**“Or maybe they’d realized I got my essay on _Tom Sawyer_ from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

**‘Well?’ she demanded.**

**‘Ma’am, I don’t…’**

**‘Your time is up,’ she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn’t human. She was s shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.”**

 

“A fury?!” Poseidon screamed at Hades.

“Don’t look at me, I haven’t done it yet.” Hades shouted back.

 

**“Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who’d been out front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. ‘What ho, Percy!’ he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.”**

 

“What is he going to do with a pen? Write her a letter to kindly ask her not to kill him?” Hermes asked sarcastically.

 

**“Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn’t a pen any more. It was a sword – Mr. Brunner’s bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

 

“Oh, yeah, a sword is probably better than a pen in that situation.” Hermes said quietly to himself.

 

**“Mrs. Dodds spun towards me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.”**

 

“Wimp…” Ares didn’t get further before he was drenched in ice cold salt water, curtesy of Poseidon.

 

**“She snarled, ‘Die, honey!’ And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her body as if she were made of water. _Hiss!_**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of Sulphur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if two glowing red eyes were still watching me.”**

 

“Not bad, hero.” Hesta said kindly to Percy who blushed.

 

**“I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn’t there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must’ve been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.”**

 

“Don’t even think about it, Apollo!” Artemis growled.

“Think about what?” was Apollos innocent question.

“Whatever you were thinking about.” Was the snarled answer.

“But, Artemis, if you tell me not to think about what I shouldn’t think about and then when I ask what I shouldn’t think about, you tell me to think about what I shouldn’t think about, how can I not think about what I shouldn’t think about?” Apollo looked at Artemis expectantly.

“I’m confused.” Nico said, scratching his head.

“You’re not the only one.” Percy admitted as Thalia nodded.

 

**“Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends.**

**When she saw me, she said, ‘I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt.’**

 

“Who?” Poseidon asked.

 

**“I said, ‘Who?’**

 

“Like father, like son.” Hestia smiled at Poseidon, who looked proud to be compared to his son. Or, well, technically it’s the other way around, but anyway.

 

**“’Our _teacher._ Duh!’**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, ‘Who?’**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn’t look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**‘Not funny, man,’ I told him. ‘This is serious.’**

**Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as he’d never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted.**

**‘Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson.’ I handed it over. I hadn’t realized I was still holding it.**

**‘Sir,’ I said, ‘where’s Mrs. Dodds?’**

**He stared at me blankly. ‘Who?’**

**‘The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher.’**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned.**

**‘Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?’**

 

“Chiron is a really good liar,” Hermes seemed proud of that fact.

Everyone was sitting quietly until Apollo turned to Athena and asked, “Aren’t you going to read?”

“That was the end of the chapter.” She answered. “Who wants to read next?"

“I do.” Aphrodite held out her hand for the book. When Athena gave it to her she put on a pair of pink reading glasses and cleared her throat.

 

**“ Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks Of Death.” **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it  
> Love Nyxi


	3. Three old ladis knit hte socks of death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still don't own the PJO series and my grammar is bad.  
> Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 2.

**“Three old ladies knit the socks of death.”**

“Old ladies are creepy.” Nico shuddered.

**“I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.”**

“I told you, you’re delusional.” Thalia said, while patting Percy on the head.

“Don’t place your mental instability on me, Thalia, just because you’re ashamed.” Percy smiled kindly at her.

**“For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr – a perky blond woman whom I’d never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip – had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.”**

“You are psycho.” Nico laughed. “Just admit it.”

**“It got so I almost believed them – Mrs. Dodds had never existed. Almost.”**

“Grover.” This time it wasn’t just Nico and Thalia who groaned, but Hermes and Apollo as well.

**“But Grover couldn’t fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn’t exist. But I knew he was lying. Something was going on. Something _had_ happened at the museum.”**

“No, really? We had no idea, at all.” Thalia’s tone was dripping sarcasm. “Dumbass.”

**“I didn’t have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.”**

“Wimp.” Ares muttered, but everyone heard him anyway.

“Have you ever met a fury, Ares?” Nico asked.

“No…” was the confused answer.

“Do you want to?” The look in Nico’s eyes were pure evil.

“No.” Ares whimpered quietly.

“What was that?” Nico raised an eyebrow.

Clearing his throat Ares said, “No, sir.”

“Then sit down and shut up.” Nico snarled. Hades looked really proud of his son.

**“The freak weather continued, which didn’t help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.”**

“Seriously? Why do you always fight?” Aphrodite stopped reading to ask. “I mean, isn’t it better to just take them out and measure and be done with it?”

Zeus and Poseidon had weirded out looks on their red faces. Hades was laughing his ass of while Percy, Nico and Thalia looked disgusted. Apollo and Hermes stared at Aphrodite in a new light. When she didn’t get an answer, she huffed and started to read again.

**“I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn’t even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.”**

Athena chuckled, “It means old drunk.” she explained and the others smiled.

**“The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.”**

Nico looked confused, “I didn’t know Paul played poker?”

“This was before Paul.” Percy said, but didn’t elaborate.

**“And yet… there were things I’d miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out of my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I’d miss Grover, who’d been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I was worried how he’d survive next year without me.**

**I’d miss Latin class, too – Mr. Brunner’s crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well. As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn’t forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn’t sure why, but I’d started to believe him.”**

“Good, then you’ll be more cautious.” Athena agreed. From a logical standpoint, of course, she would never agree with a spawn of Poseidon otherwise.

**“The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the _Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology_ across my dorm room.”**

Athena looked scandalized, but Aphrodite kept reading before she could start ranting and lecturing everybody.

**“Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjuring those Latin verbs? Forget it.”**

“What is it with Greeks and weirdly spelt names?” Percy asked. “I mean, there’s a lot of PH that sounds like F and then the C’s are they supposed to be pronounced like C or a K or a shhhh sort of sound? It is really confusing.”

The gods looked offended but Percy didn’t seem to notice and kept ranting about Greek names and places. Luckily Aphrodite started to read again before someone, also known as drama queen, lightning rod and big head, but answers mostly to Zeus, could incinerate him.

**“I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remember Mr. Brunner’s serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. _I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I’d never sked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat ‘F’ I was about to score on his exam. I didn’t want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn’t tried.”**

“Aww, that’s so cute.” Coed most goddesses.

**“I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner’s door was ajar, light from his window stretched across the hallway floor. I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover’s said,’… worried about Percy, sir.’**

**I froze.**

**I’m not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.”**

“He has a point.” Nico agreed.

“It’s only eavesdropping if you get caught.” Hermes said, then he started to look thoughtful. “No… Wait… That’s wrong, it should be ‘It’s only _stealing_ if you get caught.’”

**“I inched closer.**

**‘… alone this summer,’ Grover was saying. ‘I mean, a Kindly One in the _school!_ Now that we know for sure, and _they_ know too –‘**

**‘We would only make matters worse by rushing him.’ Mr. Brunner said. ‘We need the boy to mature more.’**

**‘But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline –‘**

**‘Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.’**

**‘Sir, he _saw_ her…’**

**‘His imagination,’ Mr. Brunner insisted. ‘The mist over students and staff will be enough to convince him of that.’**

**‘Sir, I… I can’t fail in my duties again.’ Grover’s voice was choked with emotion. ‘You know what that would mean.’**

**‘You haven’t failed, Grover,’ Mr. Brunner said kindly. ‘I should have seen her for what she was. Now let’s just worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn –‘**

**The mythology book drooped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.”**

“Don’t get caught!! That’s rule #1!” Hermes shouted. “What’s wrong with young people today?”

“Maybe you’re just getting old?” Apollo snickered.

“You’re older than me, you dumbshit.”

“Minor detail, don’t be a nitpick.”

“Apollo, do you even know what _‘nitpick’_ means?” Artemis asked.

“Nope.” Apollo answered, popping the p.

“It’s a verb and means ‘to be excessively concerned with or critical of inconsequential details.’” Athena said, sounding like a recorded dictionary.

**“Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Mr. Brunner’s office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer’s bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow _clop-clop-clop,_ like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke.**

**‘Nothing,’ he murmured. ‘My nerves haven’t been right since the winter solstice.’”**

“What has happened?” Athena asked, but got no answer.

**“’Mine neither,’ Grover said. ‘But I could have sworn…’**

**‘Go back to the dorm,’ Mr. Brunner told him. ‘You’ve got a long day of exames tomorrow.’**

**‘Don’t remind me.’**

**The light went out in Mr. Brunner office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he’d been there all night.**

**‘Hey,’ he said, bleary-eyed. ‘You going to be ready for this test?’**

**I didn’t answer.**

**‘You look awful.’ He frowned. ‘Is everything okay?’**

**‘Just… tired.’**

**I turned so he couldn’t read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.”**

“That won’t work, satyrs are empaths.” Dionysus yawned. Everybody jumped, because they thought he was sleeping.

**“I didn’t understand what I’d heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I’d imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.”**

“Danger? Nha… it’s just a few monsters that wants to eat you!” Nico started calmly but snarled the last part.

**“The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I’d misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he’d found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn’t seem to be the problem.**

**‘Percy,’ he said. ‘Don’t be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It’s… it’s for the best.’”**

“He is not very good at those sorts of talks.” Hestia smiled sadly.

**“His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, ‘Okay, sir.’**

**‘I mean…’ Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn’t sure what to say. ‘This isn’t the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.’”**

“That’s just sad.” Aphrodite sniffed.

**“My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn’t handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**‘Right.’ I said, trembling.**

**‘No, no,’ Mr. Brunner said. Oh, confound it all. What I’m trying to say… you’re not normal, Percy. That’s nothing to be –‘**

**‘Thanks,’ I blurted. ‘Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.’**

**‘Percy –‘**

**But I was already gone.”**

“Chiron really needs to learn better consoling speeches.” Thalia shook her head sadly.

**“On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were _rich_ juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.”**

“We already knew Nico was a nobody, but me? That’s just plain rude, kelp head.” Said Thalia with a smirk.

“Nico isn’t Nobody, that’s Annabeth.” Percy laughed.

“What?” Thalia looked confused.

“Spoilers.” Was the smirked replay.

**“They asked me what I’d be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn’t tell them was that I’d have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I’d go to school in the autumn.**

**‘Oh,’ one of the guys said. ‘That’s cool.’**

**They went back to their conversation as if I’d never existed.”**

“Rude much.” Aphrodite mumbled.

**“The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover but, as it turned out, I didn’t have to. He’d booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he’d always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I’d always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn’t stand it any more.**

**I said, ‘Looking for Kindly Ones?’”**

Thalia and Nico started to laugh. “You’re going to give him a heart attack.

**“Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. ‘Wha – what do you mean?’**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover’s eye twitched. ‘How much did you hear?’**

**‘Oh… not much. What’s the summer-solstice deadline?’**

**He winced. ‘Look, Percy… I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon maths teachers…’**

**‘Grover –‘**

**‘And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…’”**

“He’s a really bad liar. Maybe I should teach him?” Hermes whispered to Apollo.

**“’Grover, you’re a really, really bad liar.’**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. ‘Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.’**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:”**

“Why fancy script?” Dementer wondered.

“Well, I’m not allowed to drink and I’m stuck at camp surrounded by brats, I have to find entertainment somewhere.” Dionysus said like it was obvious.

“Do you think he realized he just called Castor and Pollux ‘brats’” Percy quietly asked Nico and Thalia who just snickered and shook their heads.

**“** **_Grover Underwood, Keeper_ **

**_Half-Blood Hill_ **

**_Long Island, New York_ **

**_(800)009-0009_ **

**‘What’s Half – ‘**

**‘Don’t say it aloud!’ he yelped. ‘That’s my, um… summer address.’**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I’d never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**‘Okay,’ I said glumly. ‘So, like, if I want tome visit your mansion.’**

**He nodded. ‘Or… or if you need me.’**

**‘Why would I need you?’”**

“Percy, that was uncalled for.” Hestia reprimanded.

**“It came out harsher than I meant it too.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam’s apple. ‘Look, Percy, the truth is. I – I kind of have to protect you.’**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I’d gotten in fights keeping bullies away from him. I’d lost sleep worrying that he’d get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended _me_.**

**‘Grover,’ I said, ‘what exactly are you protecting me from?’**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we’d all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of county road – no place you’d notice if you didn’t break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashion fruit stand.”**

“Oh, fruit, how nice.” Dementer smiled.

“I’m hungry.” Hermes and Apollo complained.

“We’ll eat after this chapter.” Hestia promised. The guys in the room perked up.

**“The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood-red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-footed tub full of ice. There was no customers, just three old ladies, knitting the biggest pair of socks I’d ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandanas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.”**

“The Fates!” Poseidon looked really scared.

**“The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**‘Grover?’ I said. ‘Hey, man – ‘**

**‘Tell me they’re not looking at you. They are. Aren’t they?’**

**‘Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?’**

**‘Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.’”**

Not even Hermes and Apollo thought it was funny. Thalia was looking at Percy with a look that said, _‘Why didn’t you tell me?’_

**“The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors – gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**‘We’re getting on the bus,’ he told me. ‘Come on.’**

**‘What?’ I said. ‘It’s a thousand degrees in there.’**

**‘Come on!’ He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that _snip_ across four lanes of traffic.”**

Poseidon stood up and grabbed Percy, then he went back to his throne and put Percy his lap, hugging him tight.

“Eh… Dad?” Percy asked hesitantly.

“Hush, son.” Was the strained answer. Then he started to mumble about The Fates not taking his baby boy. Percy was blushing and looking highly uncomfortable, while Hermes, Apollo, Nico and Thalia were snickering.

**“Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**‘Darn right!’ yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. ‘Everybody back on board!’**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I’d caught the flu.”**

Poseidon whimpered and held Percy tighter. _‘Not my baby.’_ Could be heard from him.

**“Grover didn’t look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**‘Grover?’**

**‘Yeah?’**

**‘What are you not telling me?’**

**He dabbed his forehead with his sleeve. ‘Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?’**

**‘You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They’re not like… Mrs. Dodds, are they?’**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, ‘Just tell me what you saw.’**

**‘The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.’**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might’ve been crossing himself, but it wasn’t. It was something else, something almost – older.**

**He said, ‘You saw her snip the cord.’**

**‘Yeah. So?’ But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**‘This is not happening,’ Grover mumbled. He started chewing his thumb. ‘I don’t want this to be like the last time.’**

**‘What last time?’”**

“Yeah. What last time?” Apollo asked. No one answered him, either they hadn’t heard him or they were ignoring him. Probably the second.

**“’Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.’**

**‘Grover,’ I said, because he was really starting to scare me. ‘What are you talking about?’**

**‘Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.’**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**‘Is this like a superstition or something?’ I asked.**

**No answer.**

**‘Grover – that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?’**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I’d like best on my coffin.”**

Everybody heard a choking sound and looked over at Poseidon and Percy. It would’ve been a funny sight, except Percy was turning blue.

“Brother, you should let him go.” Hades said. “Otherwise you’ll kill him before The Fates can cut his life tread.”

Poseidon looked at Percy and quickly let go, apologizing. Percy just nodded and coughed, then he went over to Nico and Thalia.

“The chapter is done, so we should eat now and keep reading later.” Even before Aphrodite had finished, Apollo, Hermes, Nico and Percy were out of the room.

“I guess we should follow them.” Dementer said.

They made their way to the kitchen, but when they opened the door they froze in chock.

It looked like a war zone, stuff everywhere. There was pancakes on the ceiling, flour on cabinet doors eggs cracked all over the place. In the middle of it all, at the kitchen island, satt Apollo, Hermes, Nico and Percy eating like nothing was wrong.

“My kitchen.” Hera whimpered, horrified.

“His fault.” The boys said while pointing at each other. Hermes pointed at Apollo, who pointed at Nico, who in turned pointed at Percy, who pointed at Hermes.

Hestia just smiled and snapped her fingers and the kitchen was back to its usual pristine glory.

Most gods were eating ambrosia and nectar, but Dementer was eating cerial with fresh berries. Athena was sharing a plate of sushi with Hestia.

Percy was sharing his blue pancakes with Hermes, Apollo and Nico with blue cherry coke to drink, not the most common drink to pancakes but it somehow worked. Artemis had gotten Thalia a chicken salad and sparkling water from a place down the street from the Empire State building.

“So…” Aphrodite asked, looking at the demi-gods. “Does anyone have a boyfriend or girlfriend?”

“I’m a hunter.” Thalia said slowly, like she was talking to someone that wasn’t all there in the head.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t have a girlfriend or a secret boyfriend.” Aphrodite said with a raised eyebrow and a sly smirk. Nico saved Thalia from answering and Aphrodite from getting killed by a certain virgin goddess by answering that he wasn’t in a relationship.

“How about you, Percy?” Aphrodite looked expectantly at Percy.

“No, I don’t have a boyfriend.” He said with a mischievous look in his eyes. Aphrodite looked disappointed.

“I do.” Apollo said.

“Do what?” Artemis asked.

“Have a boyfriend.” He said like it was obvious.

“Really? Who?!” Aphrodite squealed.

“Hermes.” Apollo said, throwing his arms around a freaked out looking messenger god.

“Hermes?” Artemis looked skeptical.

“Yeah. He’s a boy and he’s my friend. Dhu!” 

“You’re so gay, Apollo.” Hermes shoved Apollo of him. Apollo stood up from where he had fallen and snapped his fingers. There was a small flash of bright light and when it went away Apollo was wearing a pink crop top with a unicorn on it and bellybutton jean shorts.

“I’m gay and so damn proud, like you wouldn’t believe.” He said in the most feminine sassy way he could, while snapping his fingers in the form of a Z. He crocked his hip out to the left and said, “I’m fucking fabulous.”

There was a moment of complete silence before everybody started to laugh. They were laughing so hard some had tears running down their face while others held their stomachs in pain from all the laughter.

After a while, when everyone had calmed down some, Hestia said, “We should return to the throne room and keep reading.”

Everyone got up to leave, but Artemis stopped Apollo. 

“Shouldn’t you change your clothes?” she asked with a smile and left with a laugh at Apollos blush. He snapped his fingers, changing his clothes back to normal, then he grabbed an armful of snacks and left to join the others.

 

 Apollo and Hermes came in to the room carrying an armful of snacks, each.

“Who wants to read next?” Aphrodite asked.

“I will.” Hestia said and took the book from Aphrodite.

** “Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Trousers.” **


	4. Grover unexpectedly loses his pants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own the Percy Jackson series and my grammar is still bad.

**GROVER UNEXPECTEDLY LOSES HIS PANTS**

Before Hestia could continue reading there was a crunching sound. When it didn’t repeat, Hestia tried to read again but the sound was heard again. Everyone started to look around and saw Hermes holding a bag of Cheetos and shewing loudly. He was about to put more Cheetos in his mouth when Apollo elbowed him in the side. He froze and slowly raised his head to look at everyone and noticed them staring at him.

“Heh…sorry.” He shrugged, embarrassed, putting away the Cheetos.

“Didn’t you just eat?” Dementer asked.

“You’re never to full for Cheetos.” Hermes smiled, then he put away his snack bag and nodded at Hestia.

  
**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

 

“Rude much.” Thalia said.

  
**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

 

“Creepy.” Nico tried to sound mysterious, truthfully, it didn’t work.

  
**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

 

“Awesome.” Nico said.

“Amazing.” Thalia concluded.

“The BEST mom EVER.” Percy finished. 

Hera smiled, wishing her children would say that about her. That she threw one of them of Olympus didn’t matter, he should love her anyway, he was her son. No one has ever said that the queen of the gods was completely sane, now have they.

  
**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her.**

 

Hestia looked sad, no one should have to live with someone who didn’t care about them.

 

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

 

“Eeeeeek!!” Aphrodite squealed.

“Calm down dear.” Hephaestus said, patting her arm.

“But that’s so cute.” She sighed.

“Yes, it’s very sweet, but if you calm down and think, we may be able to bless her later.” Hephaestus explained. Aphrodite looked at him in a new light and decided to pay a little more attention to her husband.   
  
**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**   
  
**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**   
  
**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

“I like her, uncle P. She didn’t lie, but she didn’t the truth either.” Hermes had a weird look in his eyes.   
  
**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**   
  
**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Most of the occupants of the room looked green, except Percy, who looked pissed.   
  
**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**   
  
**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**   
  
**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**   
  
**"Where's my mom?"**   
  
**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**   
  
**That was it. No Welcome back. _Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?_**

“If he had said that I would think he was a pod person or think he finally lost it.” Percy said, but he sounded odd.

“You okay?” Thalia asked quietly. Percy just grunted as an answer.   
  
**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

Aphrodite looked really green and like she was about to lose her lunch. Hephaestus leaned over and whispered in her ear. No one could hear what he said but Aphrodite looked better.   
  
**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

The throne room became really quiet.

“Did he hit you?” Poseidon asked calmly, to calmly. Like the calm before the storm and all hell…eh, sorry, Hades would break lose. Percy didn’t answer right away, but slowly nodded his head.

The air around Thalia started crackling. Around Nico, the shadows started to get darker and slowly creep outwards. But worst was Poseidon. He started to pace in front of his throne.

“ I’m going to find him, rip his intestines out of his ass, tie him up with them, flay him alive with a rusty old spoon and then wear his intestines as scarves while I dance in his blood to his screams of pain.” In the middle of Poseidon’s rant, Hades had taken out a note book and started to write what his brother was saying, looking impressed.

“Calm down Poseidon, you can’t do anything now anyway.” Dementer said. Poseidon turned to Hades.

“When he dies, I want him to experience the worst torture you can come up with,” he snarled.

“You already did, dear brother.” Hades chuckled.   
  
**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**   
  
**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**   
  
**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**   
  
**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change.**

“He can count?” Athena asked shocked. There were some chuckles spread around the room.

**Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**  
  
 **Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**  
  
 **"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**  
  
 **Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**  
  
"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."“Oh, he will lose and lose a lot.” Hermes and Dionysus looked down right evil at that moment. You see, Dionysus may act like he doesn’t care about the children at camp, but he does. He just doesn’t want to get to know them just to watch them die a heroes death.

** "Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"  
  
I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.  
  
I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.  
  
Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.  
  
But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.  
  
Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"  
  
She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.  
  
My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. **

“Aww,” the goddesses cooed at Percy who blushed.

** Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.  
  
"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"  
  
Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home. **

Ares, Hermes, Apollo, Nico and Percy drooled.

“Boys.” Artemis and Thalia said at the same time. Artemis smiled at her hunter in pride. **  
  
We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?  
  
I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.  
  
From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?" **

“He should not interrupt mother and son time.” Hera snarled with a murderous look. Zeus leaned as far away from her as he could. **  
  
I gritted my teeth.  
  
My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe. **

“What about a God?” Aphrodite asked. Poseidon blushed, but had a small smile on his face. **  
  
For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at YancyAcademy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked YancyAcademy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.  
  
Until that trip to the museum ...  
  
"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"  
  
"No, Mom." **

“Don’t lie to your mother.” Hera snapped. **  
  
I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.  
  
She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.  
  
"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."  
  
My eyes widened. "Montauk?" **

“I love Montauk.” Nico sighed. “It’s the only place I actually go into the water of my own free will.”

“You’ve been to Montauk? Why?” Hades asked.

“Yes, and because Sally invited me.” was the answer.

“Yeah, mom has basically adopted you.” Percy told Nico who smiled and looked happy. **  
  
"Three nights—same cabin."  
  
"When?"  
  
She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."  
  
I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.  
  
Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"  
  
I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.  
  
"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."  
  
Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"  
  
"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."  
  
"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."  
  
Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?" **

“Clothes budget?!” Aphrodite was almost hyperventilating at the mere thought of a budget for clothes. **  
  
"Yes, honey," my mother said.  
  
"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."  
  
"We'll be very careful."  
  
Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."  
  
Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week. **

 

“Do it.” Hestia said. Everybody was shocked, sweet, kind, wouldn’t hurt a fly, Hestia had wished someone pain.

  
** But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.  
  
Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?  
  
"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now." **

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.” Athena stated.

“And no one likes a know-it-all, but that doesn’t seem to stop you, now does it.” Poseidon smirked at her. Athena looked offended but before she could snarl something back Hestia started to read again.   
  
** Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.  
  
"Yeah, whatever," he decided.  
  
He went back to his game.  
  
"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"  
  
For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.  
  
But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. **   


** An hour later we were ready to leave.  
  
Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. **

Artemis was mumbling in ancient greek, thinks that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company. Let’s just say that a sailor would blush and leave it at that.

** He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.  
  
"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."  
  
Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.  
  
Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

Hestia had to stop reading because of the laughter.

** Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.  
  
I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.  
  
Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.  
  
I loved the place. **

“Of course, you do, seaweed brain.” Thalia chuckled while Percy just stuck out his tongue at her. **  
  
We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.  
  
As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.  
  
We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.  
  
I guess I should explain the blue food. **

“Finally! I have been wondering since lunch.” Apollo threw his hands in the air. **  
  
See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me. **

“Percy, you don’t have a rebellious streak. You, dear cousin, have an obedient streak.” Thalia said. Poseidon looked torn between understanding and worried, while Hermes, Apollo and Nico laughed. **  
  
When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.  
  
Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.  
  
"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes." **

The gods looked between Poseidon and Percy.

“She’s right, you look like a younger copy of your father.” Dementer admitted. Percy smiled at her and Poseidon looked proud. **  
  
Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."  
  
I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.  
  
"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"  
  
She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."  
  
"But... he knew me as a baby."  
  
"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."  
  
I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. **

“He did visit when I was a baby.” Percy whispered to his cousins. **  
  
I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...  
  
I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe. **

“I don’t blame you or feel like that anymore.” Percy admitted. **  
  
"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"  
  
She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.  
  
"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."  
  
"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.  
  
My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."  
  
Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.  
  
"Because I'm not normal," I said.  
  
"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought YancyAcademy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."  
  
"Safe from what?" **

“Just your crazy uncle.” Poseidon said.

“I’m not crazy.” Hades protested.

“I was talking about Zeus.” Poseidon pointed out.

“Hey!” Zeus said and his brothers laughed at the look on his face. **  
  
She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.  
  
During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.  
  
Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands. **

“Like Hercules.” Zeus boasted and was about to start bragging about his son.

“Don not, I repeat, DO NOT _EVER_ compare me to the asshat known as Hercules. He’s a good for nothing dipshit that can’t do anything without help, and then takes all the credit for shit he didn’t do.” Percy snarled.

“You can’t talk about my son like that, boy!” Zeus shouted

“Watch me.” Percy growled back. Zeus was about to blast him when Thalia stepped in front of him.

“Don’t you dare.” She said coldly. Zeus was so shocked that he sat down.

‘Maybe he’s different from other boys?’ Artemis thought. **  
  
In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. **

** I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.  
  
"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."  
  
"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"  
  
"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."  
  
My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?  
  
"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."  
  
"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."  
  
She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.  
  
That night I had a vivid dream.  
  
It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder. **

“Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t done anything…yet.” Hades sighed. **  
  
I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No! **

“HA, I win.” Zeus puffed up his chest. Poseidon just rolled his eyes. **  
  
I woke with a start.  
  
Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.  
  
With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."  
  
I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.  **

“How dare you forget, uncle P.” Apollo said with a hand over his heart looking scandalized. Then he and Hermes broke down in laughter.

** Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.  
  
Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.  
  
My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.  
  
Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.  
  
"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"  
  
My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.  
  
"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"  
  
I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.  
  
"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"  
  
I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ... **

“What?! What?! What?!” Apollo bounced in his throne with excitement. **  
  
My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"  
  
I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.  
  
She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"  
  
Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.  
  
Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves. **

“Oh, I thought it was something odd.” Apollo said with disappointment.

“That’s the end of the chapter.” Hestia said kindly.

“I’ll read next.” Hermes said and took the book.

** “My mother teaches me Bullfighting.” **

 


	5. My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own the PJO series and my grammar sucks.

Chapter 4.

Hermes cleared his throat but before he could start reading there was a flash of light and a young woman was standing there. She had blond hair, startling grey eyes and a tan.

“So, this is where you’ve been,” she said looking at the demigods. “What’s going on anyway?”

“Well, we were sent to the past, by the fates, to read a couple of books.” Thalia explained.

“About what?” the blonde asked.

“About me.” Percy stepped forward.

“Seaweed brain.” Blondie said coldly.

“Wise girl.” Percy said back in the same tone.

They stared at each other for a while, the girl started to smile. Percy laughed and ran up to her, took her in his arms and spun around.

“Gods, I’ve missed you.” Percy said and kissed her.

Zeus cleared his throat and demanded, “Who are you and who’s your mother/father?”

She stopped hugging Percy but kept a hold of his hand.

“My name is Annabeth Chase and I’m a daughter of Athena.”

“You’re dating the sea spawn?!” Athena screeched.

“Yes.” Was the simple answer she got in return.

Before Athena could start a rant or something equally annoying, Hermes picked up the book, which he dropped when Annabeth arrived, and started to read, while the demigods went to sit down again.

 

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

“That’s not really safe, is it?” Dementer asked.

“No, but awesome.” Ares cheered.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

“Ohh, he is so going to kill you.” Nico cackled.

“What’s wrong with him?” Aphrodite asked.

“I think he was dropped on his head as a kid.” Thalia shrugged.

“Hey!”

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us.**

**"Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"**

“He’s the SPUPER GOAT. Dum dum daa.” Nico did ha superhero pose.

“Okay, who gave him sugar?!” Percy demanded. No one answered, but what nobody saw was Apollo hiding a bag of jelly beans behind his back.

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

“He just said it didn’t matter.” Apollo said throwing his hands up.

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" "**

**So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

“Not the time seaweed brain.” Annabeth groaned.

“I was just happy that I hadn’t made her up.” Percy explained, kissing her cheek.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?" The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

“What’s chasing you?” Poseidon looked pale.

“Maybe it’s a giant chicken nugget?” Nico suggested. “Mmm…chicken nuggets.” He drooled.

“There is something seriously wrong with you.” Thalia said shaking her head.

“One mans insanity is another mans cupcake or something.” Nico nodded with determination.

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

“Why does everybody blame uncle Hades for everything?” Percy asked. “It’s not like the rest of you don’t do the same thing, but it’s only uncle Hades that gets a bad rep. It basically feel like that if anything goes wrong you blame Hades. Like ‘Oh no, the dog got hit by a buss, it’s Hades fault.’ Or some poor sap jumps in front of a train, ‘What did you do now Hades?’. Or a mass shooting happens, well that’s Hades fault again, etc. etc. etc.” During Percy’s rant some of the gods looked ashamed and the others like they were reevaluating their thinking. Hades felt shaken and touched by what his nephew said but put up a blank mask before anyone could see what he was thinking.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird. My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

“I think you should show some more respect for the Fates, young demigod.” Hestia said kindly.

“At that point I didn’t know who or what they were, so to me they were just some creepy old ladies cutting yarn.” Percy explained.

Hestia smiled and nodded at him.

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

**"Boys!" my mom said. She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

“The giant chicken nugget of doom!” Nico exclaimed.

“Really Nico?” Thalia looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, seriously, what is wrong with you?!”

“You just don’t appreciate my glowing brilliance.” Nico stuck his nose in the air.

“What ‘glowing brilliance’? Are you talking about your lily-white ass that’s so pale it glows in the dark? If so, I absolutely don’t appreciate it.” Thalia smirked.

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive. Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded. I**

**remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said,**

**"Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay... ." I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

Everything started to shake.

“ZEUS!!!” Poseidon roared and flung himself out of his throne and tackled Zeus out on to the floor and proceed with banging his head into the ground, leaving a big hole.

“Teach you not to touch my son. I’m going to make fish food out of you, you ass liking, donkey fucking, monkey sucking imbecile.”

It tock Ares, Apollo, Hermes and Hephaestus to get Poseidon of Zeus. When everyone had calmed sown, with Poseidon glaring hatefully at Zeus, Hermes started to read again.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump.**

**"Grover!" He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

There was quiet laughter all around the room.

“Boys.” Artemis said, but she had a small hidden smile on her face.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

“Oh please, please, not him.” Poseidon mumbled **.**

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

**"What?" Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

“Oh look, it’s me.” Thalia said with a weird smile on her face.

“What?” Apollo asked. “What do you mean ‘you’?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes.”

“Like really, really?”

“YES!!!”

“To bad. I ain’t telling you shit.” Thalia started to laugh.

“You are a mean, mean…duck!!” Apollo pouted which made everyone laugh at him.

**"That's the property line," my mom said.**

**"Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder. The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...**

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull. I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

“Stubborn and loyal.” Athena hummed. “That could be a dangerous combination.”

Percy sunk down I his seat at the looks he was getting.

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover." I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

“Did you just call Grover fat?” Thalia asked.

“Eh…no?” Percy asked unsurely.

“Was that a question in form of an answer?” Thalia raised an eyebrow.

“Was it?” Percy asked vaguely.

“Ugh, boys.” Thalia groaned and Artemis nodded in agreement.

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass. Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders. His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener. I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real. I blinked the rain out of my eyes.**

**"That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

“I don’t understand.” Athena said. “How come a woman, who seems very intelligent, ever wanted to be with you, fish face.”

Poseidon just looks at her with a smirk, “Why? Are you jealous?”

“What?! NO…I mean, eww, that’s…that’s ludicrous.” Athena stuttered with a blush, luckily for her most thought it was from anger.

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least. I glanced behind me again. The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded. Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

Laughter spread through the room.

“That’s awesome.” Apollo yelled. “Suck on that, you ignoramus.”

“What’s an ignoramus.” Nico asked.

“An ignorant or stupid person.” Apollo answered. “What?!” He asked at all the looks.

“I’m just surprised **you** knew that.” Athena said with a condescending tone.

“I’m not stupid, you know.” Apollo said, hurt.

“Could’ve fooled me.” Athena sneered.

Apollo just sank down in his throne. Only Artemis and Hermes noticed the quickly wiped away tears.

Artemis glared at Athena with hatred. No one, and I mean NO ONE hurt her little brother and got away with it. She shared a look with Hermes and with just that one look they agreed to make Athena pay for hurting Apollo.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

“I miss my mom.” Percy said quietly.

Annabeth smiled and cuddled in to his side. “We’ll go end visit when we get home, seaweed brain.”

“Can we come to?” Thalia and Nico asked.

“Always.” Percy smiled.

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. He'd smelled us. The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover.**

**"Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat. He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

“Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods.” Poseidon was mumbling while hyperventilating.

Hades looked at him and came to a decision. He got up and walked over to Poseidon, took his hand and said. “It’s okay, baby brother, just breath. Your son is fine and I promise not to send any monsters after him if this happens in the future.”

Poseidon griped Hades hand tightly and nodded. He felt a little calmer after the promise and remembers why Hades is his favorite brother. But, shh, don’t tell Zeus.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass. We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it. The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

Poseidon almost broke Hades hand with his hard grip. Percy was pale and hugging Annabeth close. Even if he knew that his mom was fine, didn’t mean he liked hearing about this again.

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"Mom!" She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

“Wait…why would I kidnap a mortal?” Hades asked bewildered. “I mean, sure, I’m probably mad that Poseidon broke the oath, but kidnapping the boys mother? I mean, what the hell?!”

“I agree, that doesn’t sound like uncle H.” Hermes said and Apollo nodded in agreement.

“Maybe he’s going to trick her to.” Dementer sneered.

Poseidon groaned, “Give it a rest Dementer. It’s been centuries. And shouldn’t you ask Persephone what she thinks?”

Dementer just huffed and mumbled about daughter stealing brothers and traitors.

**"No!" Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons. The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too. I couldn't allow that. I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

“You need better insults, dear cousin.” Thalia laughed.

Percy sent her a boyish grin and flipped her of.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists. I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment. But it didn't happen like that. The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. Time slowed down. My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck. How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out. The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

“Ewww.” Aphrodite gagged.

“How do you even know how that smells like?” Nico asked.

“Gabe.” Was the only answer and Nico nodded in understanding.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward. Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned. The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

“Not gonna happen, punk.” Ares sneered.

Percy smirked in his direction while the other demigods laughed.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

“What?!” Ares snapped.

The rest of the gods laughed, now understanding why the demigods had laughed.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife. The monster charged. Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage. The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart. The monster was gone.**

“Your son is awesome, uncle P.” Hermes and Apollo cheered.

Poseidon looked proud and finally let go of Hades hand.

“Thank you, brother.” He said quietly to Hades, who patted him on the shoylder with a nod na went back to his own throne.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

“Sush a sweet boy.” Hestia smiled at Percy who blushed and smiled back.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

“That’s the end of the chapter.” Hermes said.

“A princess? Really?” Thalia laughed. “Does that mean Percy is Prince charming?”

“If anyone is a princess in this relationship, it’s Percy.” Annabeth smirked.

“Hey! That’s not fair.” Percy pouted.

“All is fair in love and war.” Annabeth never lost the smirk on her face. “Plus, I think you would look rally cute in a dress.”

Everyone started to laugh at Percy who was glowing red thanks to his blush.

After the laughter had died down Hermes asked, “Who wants to read next?”

“Give it here.” Artemis said, reaching for the book. “I’ll read.”

** “I play pinochle with a horse.” **


	6. I play pinochle with a horse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own the PJO series and the grammar is still bad. There is also a description of an Asian country in this chapter and I'm sorry if I got the information wrong or if I offended anyone.

 

** “I Play Pinochle with a Horse.” **

 

“Amazing creatures, those horses, don’t you think?” The sarcastic question from Thalia made the chuckle.

 

** I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.  
I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon. **

 

“Oh, oh, oh, is a Florence Nightingale effect happening?” Aphrodite looked at the demigods.

 

“A what?” Percy asked.

 

“The Florence Nightingale effect is a trope were a caregiver develops romantic feelings, sexual feelings or both for their patient, even if very little communication or contact takes place outside of basic care.” Athena explained/lectured.

 

“It’s so romantic and sweet.” Aphrodite sighed.

 

“It’s creepy and disgusting, that’s what it is.” Athena sneered.

 

Aphrodite lost her smile and ‘heart’ eyes, turned to Athena and said, “Just because you don’t have a single romantic bone in your body, doesn’t mean you have to drag everybody else down into your miserable, cold, dark place.” **  
  
**

 

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"  
  
I managed to croak, "What?"  
  
She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"  
  
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."  
  
Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.  
  
The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.  
  
A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes— at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

 

****

 

Hera smiled at the mention of Argus. **  
  
* * *  
  
When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.  
  
On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.  
My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

 

“Wimp.” Ares scoffed.

 

Percy gave him a blank stare.

 

“Who is the wimp here?” He asked. “The half mortal who’s out fighting monsters almost every day and could die at any time, or the immortal who still live with his mother?”

 

Hermes and Apollo high-fived Percy while everybody, except Ares, laughed. **  
  
"Careful," a familiar voice said.  
  
Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMPHALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.  
  
So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And ...  
  
"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."  
  
Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.  
  
Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. **

 

“So that’s what’s over your bed at camp.” Nico said.

 

“Didn’t you already know that?” Annabeth asked.

 

“I just thought it was some form of urban or abstract art or something.” Nico shrugged.

 

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There is something really, really wrong with you.” Thalia said while shaking her head.

 

**It hadn't been a nightmare.  
  
"The Minotaur," I said.  
  
"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea—"  
  
"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."  
  
Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"  
  
"My mom. Is she really ..."  
  
He looked down.  
  
I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.  
  
My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

 

“You’re sush a good son.” Hera smiled at Percy. “ _Some_ people could learn a thing or two from you.” She glared at Hephaestus.

 

“And you could take lessons from Sally Jackson on how to be a mother, but sadly we can’t always get what we want.” He said back.

 

“Do you want some Aloe Vera with that burn?” Hades asked and everybody burst out laughing, except Hera who was fuming. **  
  
"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world."  
  
He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.  
  
"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.  
  
Thunder rolled across the clear sky.  
  
As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.  
  
Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.  
  
I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

 

“You…joining…the…army?” Annabeth was laughing so hard she had tears running down her face. “You were shorter and scrawnier than me back then.” **  
  
Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit.  
  
I said, "It wasn't your fault.". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     
  
"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."  
  
"Did my mother ask you to protect me?". . .   
  
"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."  
  
"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.  
  
"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.  
  
I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting.**

 

“Mmm…cookies.” Surprisingly it was Hestia who said this.

 

“What?!” She exclaimed at the looks aimed at her. “I like cookies.”

 

**** Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.  
  
Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.

 

“How does that even work?” Percy asked.

 

“Magic.” Nico said, waving his fingers like he was trying to cast a spell. Eather that or he had weird muscle spasms. **  
"Was it good?" Grover asked.  
I nodded.  
"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.  
"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."  
His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."  
"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."  
He sighed. "And how do you feel?"  
"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."  
"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."  
"What do you mean?"  
He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."  
The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.  
My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.  
As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.  
We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing.**

 

“You don’t know, you could just be stuck in a mental institution and all this,” Nico indicated the gods and the throne room, “is just something you created in your head to escape your own sad reality.”

 

Everybody stared at him.

 

“What?! It could happen.” Nico said, throwing his hands up.

 

“If anyone belong in a mental institution it’s you, death breath.” Thalia said. “That or a zoo.”

 

** The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings. **

 

** Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. **

 

Annabeth blushed and snuggled closer to Percy. Aphrodite looked at them and smiled so big her cheeks hurt. **  
  
The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels— what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

 

Everyone burst out laughing, except Dionysus who was turning red in anger.

 

“You dare…?!” He roared, and wines started to creep towards Percy.

 

“Don’t even think about it, nephew:” Poseidon said darkly, pointing his trident at Dionysus throat.

 

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.  
"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron... ."  
He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.  
First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

 

** "Mr. Brunner!" I cried. **

 

“Really?” Athena sneered. “He just said Chiron.”

 

“I had known him as Mr. Brunner for almost a year so of course the first thing that comes up when I see him is the name I had known him by.” Percy shrugged, not the least bit embarrassed.

 

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.  
  
"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."  
  
He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."  
  
"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.  
  
"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.  
  
She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."  
  
Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."  
  
She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.**

 

“What’s wrong with my eyes?!” Annabeth demanded to know.

 

** They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight. **

 

“Oh, sorry.” Annabeth blushed to the tips of her ears while the others laughed.

 

** She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that. **

 

** Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep." **

 

** Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her. **

 

** "So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?".  **

 

** "Not Mr. Brunner," the ex—Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron." **

 

** "Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?" **

 

“Mr. Duff.” Thalia said.

 

“As in the Duff Man from Simpson?” Percy asked.

 

“No, Duff as in Designated ugly fat friend.” Thalia said like it was obvious. “Haven’t you seen that movie?”

 

“No, have you?” Percy looked skeptical.

 

“Me and Annabeth went to see it in the movies.” She shrugged.

 

** Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason." **

 

** "Oh. Right. Sorry." **

 

** "I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time." **

 

** "House call?" **

 

** "My year at YancyAcademy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence." **

 

** I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class. **

 

** "You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked. **

 

** Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for CampHalf-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test." **

 

** "Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?" **

 

** "Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt. **

 

** "You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously. **

 

** "I'm afraid not," I said. **

 

** "I'm afraid not, sir," he said. **

 

“I don’t think you had to call him sir, Dionysus.” Hermes smirked and there was some chuckles spread around the room.

 

** "Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less. **

 

** "Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules." **

 

** "I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said. **

 

** "Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to YancyAcademy just to teach me?" **

 

** Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question." **

 

** The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile. **

 

** Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer. **

 

** "Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?” **

 

“She told me a lot of things.” Percy smiled. “Just, not that.”

 

** "She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her." **

 

** "Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?" **

 

** "What?" I asked. **

 

** He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did. **

 

** "I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient." **

 

** "Orientation film?" I asked. **

 

** "No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"—he pointed to the horn in the shoe box—"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive." **

 

** I stared at the others around the table. **

 

** I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points. **

 

** "Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?" **

 

** "Eh? Oh, all right." **

 

** Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully. **

 

** "Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God." **

 

** "Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical." **

 

** "Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—" **

 

** "Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter." **

 

** "Smaller?" **

 

** "Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class." **

 

“Does the gods exist because we believe or do we believe because they exist?” Percy said thoughtfully.

 

“What did that come from?” Annabeth asked.

 

“I heard my mom say it ones.” Percy admitted.

 

** "Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them." **

 

** And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloudless day. **

 

** "Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you." **

 

** "But they're stories," I said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science." **

 

** "Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody—"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me." **

 

** I wasn't liking Mr. D much, **

 

“What’s that saying…?” Hermes murmured. “’Don’t judge a dog by its cover’?”

 

“That didn’t sound right.” Apollo said with a frown. 

 

“It’s ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’” Athena sighed.

 

“No, I think you’re wrong, because that doesn’t sound right either.” Hermes looked really thoughtful. “You know what, I’ll get back to you when I remember.”

 

** but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut. **

 

** "Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?" **

 

** I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate. **

 

** "You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said. **

 

** "Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?" **

 

** My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods." **

 

** "Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you." **

 

** Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock." **

 

** "A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'" **

 

** He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine. **

 

** My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up. **

 

** "Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions." **

 

** Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise. **

 

** "Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!" **

 

“Old habits, hm?” Zeus raised an eyebrow and was about to start lecturing Dionysus.

 

“Isn’t it more like instinct?” Nico asked. “I mean, he is the **god** of **wine** after all.”

 

Percy looked really thoughtful and asked,

 

“Aren’t you basically torturing him by refusing to let him drink wine? Wouldn’t it be like forcing dad to stay away from the sea or making Zeus stay underground?” 

 

The gods looked like they were contemplating and after a while Zeus turned to Dionysus.

 

“You’re allowed two glasses of wine per week, no more.”

 

Dionysus looked so happy he almost glowed, created a glass full of red wine and slowly took a sip. You could see his whole being relax and he started to look younger and healthier. 

 

** More thunder. **

 

** Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game. **

 

** Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits." **

 

** "A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space. **

 

** "Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair." **

 

** Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid. **

 

Dionysus was too happy and content to care even when the others laughed.

 

** "And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..." **

 

** "Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course." **

 

** I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master. **

 

** "You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine." **

 

** Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?" **

 

** "Y-yes, Mr. D." **

 

** "Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?" **

 

** "You're a god." **

 

** "Yes, child." **

 

** "A god. You." **

 

** He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life. **

 

“Again, how sure are you that you’re not already?” Nico asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

 

** "Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly. **

 

** "No. No, sir." **

 

** The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win." **

 

Dionysus sat up. “Did I finally win?” he asked hopefully.

 

** "Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me." **

 

“Drat.” Dionysus sank down in his throne, still looking mellow and calm.

 

** I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too. **

 

** "I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment." **

 

** Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir." **

 

** Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners." **

 

** He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably. **

 

** "Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron. **

 

“You’re a great friend, Perseus.” Hestia smiled.’

 

Percy flinched at his full name but still smiled at the goddess of the hearth. 

 

** Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus." **

 

** "MountOlympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?" **

 

** "Well now, there's MountOlympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on MountOlympus. It's still called MountOlympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do." **

 

** "You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in _America_?" **

 

“No, we’re in Kyrgyzstan.” Artemis words dripped with sarcasm.

 

“Where’s that?” Annabeth asked.

 

“It’s a country in Asia that’s trapped between mountain ranges. They have a game called kyz kuu mai, where a man on horseback tries to steal a kiss from a woman on horseback and if he fails the woman beats him with a whip.” Artemis explained with a smirk.

 

“Seems like a fun game.” Thalia said. “Well, not the kissing part, but the whipping of the boys part.”

 

** "Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West." **

 

** "The what?" **

 

** "Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know—or as I hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps—Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods." **

 

** "And then they died." **

 

“Yes, absolutely.” Apollo smiled. “We’re not actually gods but zombies that wants to eat your brain.”

 

Even Artemis laughed with the others at what Apollo had said. **  
  
"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in RockefellerCenter, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either—America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

 

** It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club. **

 

** "Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?" **

 

“The ghost of Christmas past.” Thalia dead-panned. 

 

** Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down. **

 

** "Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate." **

 

The demigods started to laugh up roaringly.

 

“What’s so funny?” Artemis asked.

 

“Adore is not a strong enough word.” Annabeth said whipping a tear from the corner of her eye.

 

** And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached. **

 

** I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk. **

 

** "What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers." **

 

“That’s the end of the chapter.” Artemis closed the book. “Who wants to read next?”

 

Before anyone could volunteer, there was a bright light, again.

 

“I hate that light, it’s making me blind.” Nico grumbled.

 

“You could at least pretend you’re happy to see me.” The satyr that had appeared said.

 

“But I can’t see you thanks to the damned light that blinded me.” Nico snarked back rubbing his eyes.

 

Percy laughed and stood up to great the satyr.

 

“Grover.” He said and did the typical male greeting, you know, where they clasp hands, hug and pat each others backs.

 

“Percy, what’s going on?” the satyr, who apparently was named Grover, asked.

 

Percy led him over to the couches and sat down. Then he explained what was going on with the help of the other demigods.

 

“Okay.” Grover said. “So, my name is Grover Underwood and I’m obviously a satyr. Now, who’s reading next?”

 

“I’d like to.” Apollo said, only Hermes and Artemis heard the underlying nervousness in his voice, like he thought they where going to make fun of or mock him.

 

“Of course, brother.” Artemis said giving him the book with a smile.

 

Apollo looked ecstatic that she called him brother. He opened the book to the right page and began.

 

** “I become the supreme lord of the bathroom.” **

 


	7. I become the sumpreme lord of the bathroom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still don't own the PJO series and still bad grammar.

 

** “I become the supreme lord of the bathroom.” **

 

“Well…It’s better then a lord of nothing, right?” Apollo ‘comforted’ Percy.

 

Percy nodded, looking thoughtful, “You’re not wrong.”

 

** Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, **

 

“Centaur.” Annabeth said, slapping Percy over the back of the head.

 

“I thought he was a pony-man.” Percy smiled and the demigods started to laugh while the gods looked confused.

 

** we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front. **

 

“Show some respect.” Athena sneered.

 

Percy just looked at her with his head tilted to the left. Which sort of unnerved her, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of showing it.

 

**** We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."  
  
Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMPHALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.

 

“Can you?” Hermes asked.

 

“’Can I’ what?” Percy looked puzzled.

 

“Do a flip. So, can you?” Hermes raised an eyebrow.

 

“Now I can, but back then? Maybe if I had water or something.” Percy admitted.

 

“Wimp.” Ares coughed. Then he was drenched in cold water, for some reason. **  
  
I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

 

“My Oracle MOVED?!” Apollo looked really shocked. “What the…”

 

“Language Apollo” Artemis hissed. “Not in front of the children.”

 

“I know, I know.” Apollo said. “But Holy Chocolate bar, she moved.” **  
** “I’m surprised to but hopefully we’ll find out why later.” Artemis smiled.

 

** "What's up there?" I asked Chiron. **

 

** He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic." **

 

** "Somebody lives there?" **

 

** "No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing." **

 

** I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain. **

 

** "Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see." **

 

** We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe. **

 

**…………  
  
Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and MountOlympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."  
  
He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

 

“Red grapes are soooo good, they are my favorites.” Percy hummed.

 

“I didn’t know you liked grapes.” Grover said.

 

“Only the red ones, the green ones taste weird and sort of creep me out.” Percy shuddered.

 

“They creep you out?” Grover looked incredulous. “How can grapes, or berries or fruit for that matter, creep you out?!”

 

“I don’t know, they just do.” Percy pouted.

 

Grover started to shake his head and mutter about weirdoes and freaks who were creeped out by fruit.

 

** I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. **

 

“No, he can’t, at least not at that time.” Thalia laughed.

 

“No respect.” Grover sulked.

 

“It’s not that we don’t respect you, goat boy, more the fact that at that time you couldn’t play to save your life.” Thalia smirked.

 

** I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D. **

 

** "Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really." **

 

“Thanks, Perce.” Grover smiled.

 

“Anytime, man.” Percy clapped him on the back.

 

** Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill." **

 

** "But he did that!" **

 

** "I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part." **

 

“That so-called council can go screw themselves.” Thalia snarled.

 

The other demigods nodded along.

 

** I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble. **

 

“What’s done is done and can’t be undone.” Apollo nodded.

 

“Yeah, Apollo is right. You can’t spend your life thinking about ‘what if’s’.” Artemis agreed. The twin archers smiled at each other.

 

** "He'll get a second chance, won't he?" **

 

** Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age...." **

 

** "How old is he?" **

 

** "Oh, twenty-eight." **

 

** "What! And he's in sixth grade?" **

 

** "Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years." **

 

“That sucks.” Nico said.

 

“You don’t have to tell me.” Grover sighed.

 

** "That's horrible." **

 

** "Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career...." **

 

“Never.” Grover said with determination.

 

** "That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?" **

 

** Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?" **

 

“Chiron really needs to learn how to change the subject with a little more courtesy. (A/N: I don’t know if courtesy is the right word.).” Hermes chuckled.

 

** But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind. **

 

** "Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..." **

 

** "Yes, child?" **

 

** "Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?" **

 

“Are you planning on visiting, nephew?” Hades asked.

 

“Yeah, if that’s okay with you?” Percy smiled.

 

“You want to visit the underworld?” Dementer looked skeptical.

 

“Yeah, the underworld is kind of awesome and uncle Hades makes the best…eh, what’s it called Nico?” Percy asked.

 

“Pasta Con Pomodoro E Basilico.” Nico said.

 

“Yes, that.”

 

Hades looked shocked but happy, “Do you visit the underworld often?” he asked.

 

“Yup, at least ones every other week or so.” Percy smiled at his uncle.

 

“That’s against the ancient laws.” Zeus thundered.

 

“No, it’s not” Percy said back.

 

“Yes, it is. The laws states that the gods are not allowed to interact with their children.” Athena lectured. “Which means Hades is breaking the law.”

 

“You’re wrong.” Percy said. “Hades is not my father. Which means the law doesn’t apply.”

 

“I love loopholes.” Apollo laughed and started to read.

 

** Chiron's expression darkened. **

 

** "Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now…until we know more…I would urge you to put that out of your mind." **

 

** "What do you mean, 'until we know more'?" **

 

** "Come, Percy. Let's see the woods.". . .. **

 

** As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans. **

 

** Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed." **

 

** "Stocked with what?" I asked.  **

 

“Care bears and my little pony.” Thalia said and shuddered.

 

“Care bears are kind of freaky.” Nico agreed.

 

** "Armed with what?" **

 

“A water gun filled with holy water.” Nico nodded. There were chuckles spread around the room.

 

** "You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?" **

 

** "My own—?" **

 

** "No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later." **

 

** I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights. **

 

** "Sword and spear fights?" I asked. **

 

** "Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall." **

 

** Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls. **

 

** "What do you do when it rains?" I asked. **

 

** Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject. **

 

“He is so used to everybody having watched the introduction movie.” Annabeth laughed.

 

** Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen. **

 

Before the gods could get offended Annabeth said, “Yeah, they’re all so different from each other that they look bizarre clumped together.”

 

** Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory.  **

 

Hephaestus smiled a little at the mention of his cabin.

 

** Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. **

 

“Mine.” Dementer said like the others didn’t already know that.

 

** Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at.  **

 

Apollo paused and smiled before continuing.

 

**** They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).  
  
In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

 

“You saw me?” Hestia smiled.

 

“I’m sorry that I didn’t stay and talk with you.” Percy looked ashamed.

 

“That’s okay, young demigod, I’m just happy you saw me.” Beamed Hestia.

 

** The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve.  **

 

“Over compensating, are we?” Poseidon smirked.

 

** Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks. **

 

“I wanna se your peacock, cock, cock, Your peacock, cock…” Annabeth and Thalia started to sing and the they laughed.

 

“WHAT….?!” Hera started to scream when Apollo kept reading.

 

** "Zeus and Hera?" I guessed. **

 

** "Correct," Chiron said. **

 

** "Their cabins look empty." **

 

“Like they should be.” Hera huffed and glared at her husband.

 

** "Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two." **

 

** Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.  **

 

“You’re totally right.” Hermes winked.

 

** Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty? **

 

** I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three. **

 

** It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!" **

 

“Even if he wasn’t my son, I wouldn’t have hurt him.” Poseidon said.

 

** Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy." **

 

** Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers. **

 

** Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red. **

 

** I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed. **

 

“Party ponies.” Hermes, Apollo and surprisingly Dionysus said with smiles.

 

** "No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here." **

 

** "You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..." **

 

** He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am." **

 

** "But, shouldn't you be dead?" **

 

“Oops…” Percy said with an embarrassed shrugged.

 

“Tact, Percy.” Annabeth muttered.

 

** Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed." **

 

** I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list. **

 

** "Doesn't it ever get boring?" **

 

** "No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring." **

 

** "Why depressing?" **

 

** Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again. **

 

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."  
  
* * *  
  
The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

 

“And how long am I going to be called that?” Annabeth asked with a sigh.

 

“Spoilers.” Percy smirked. (A/N: Gold star for those who can guess/knows were the “spoilers” come from.)

 

** When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled. **

 

** I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book. **

 

** "Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?" **

 

** "Yes, sir." **

 

** "Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home." **

 

** Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it...?  **

 

** A caduceus. **

 

** Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center. **

 

“Yeah, but if some people,” Hermes looked around the room at the gods. “would just claim their kids, maybe it wouldn’t look so old and overcrowded.” 

 

** Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully. **

 

** "Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner." **

 

** He galloped away toward the archery range. **

 

** I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools. **

 

** "Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on." **

 

** So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything. **

 

“Naturally?” Aphrodite asked.

 

“I think I was being sarcastic.” Percy shrugged.

 

** Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven. **

 

** "Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked. **

 

** I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined." **

 

** Everybody groaned. **

 

** A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there." **

 

“That’s sweet of him, trying to make you feel welcomed.” Hestia smiled.

 

** The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash. **

 

“Is he my son and if so, what happened to him?” Hermes sounded worried.

 

** "This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.  **

 

“Eeeep, do you have a crush?!” Aphrodite squealed.

 

“At the time I thought so but looking back, it’s more hero worship than anything else.” Annabeth blushed and explained. Percy just kissed her on the cheek with a smile.

 

** She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now." **

 

** "For now?" I asked. **

 

** "You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers." **

 

“Naturally.” Hermes huffed. Apollo patted him on the arm.

 

** I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves. **

 

“Darn. That would have looked awesome over one of my kids’ bed” Hermes said, but he winked at Percy to show he was kidding, sort of.

 

** I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets. **

 

“I’m so proud.” Hermes whipped a fake tear from the corner of his eye while some of the gods laughed at him.

 

** "How long will I be here?" I asked. **

 

** "Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined." **

 

** "How long will that take?" **

 

** The campers all laughed. **

 

** "Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court." **

 

** "I've already seen it." **

 

** "Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me. **

 

** When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that." **

 

“I know, I know.” Annabeth raised her hands in surrender, “I was being rude.”

 

** "What?" **

 

** She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one." **

 

** "What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—" **

 

** "Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?" **

 

** "To get killed?" **

 

** "To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?" **

 

“You need to get your priorities’ straight.” Thalia said with a small laugh.

 

** I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..." **

 

** "Yes." **

 

** "Then there's only one." **

 

** "Yes." **

 

** "And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..." **

 

“Gajillion is not a word.” Athena sneered. The other occupants in the room just rolled their eyes.

 

** "Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die." **

 

** "Oh, thanks. That clears it up." **

 

** "They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they re-form." **

 

“That’s just sooooooooooooooo unfair.” Nico groaned and threw his head back against the couch.

 

** I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—" **

 

** "The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad." **

 

** "How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?" **

 

** "You talk in your sleep." **

 

“He still does.” Annabeth sighed.

 

“Sorry.” Percy blushed.

 

** "You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?" **

 

** Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all." **

 

“Why are they called Kindly Ones?” Percy asked. “They aren’t exactly ‘kind’” 

 

“Good question, nephew. Truthfully, I have no idea.” Hades answered with a shrug. 

 

** "Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there." **

 

** I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent." **

 

** She stared at me, waiting for me to get it. **

 

** "My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to." **

 

** "I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad." **

 

** "He's dead. I never knew him." **

 

“Yes, he’s very dead, deader than dead in fact.” Hermes nodded and then he and Apollo chuckled. Poseidon smiled at his nephews anticts.

 

** Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy." **

 

** "How can you say that? You know him?" **

 

“Now I do.” Annabeth said.

 

** "No, of course not." **

 

** "Then how can you say—" **

 

** "Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us." **

 

** "You don't know anything about me." **

 

** "No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them." **

 

** "How—" **

 

** "Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too." **

 

“Now you’re just going to embarrass him, Annabeth.” Thalia chuckled.

 

** I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?" **

 

** "Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are." **

 

** "You sound like ... you went through the same thing?" **

 

** "Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar." **

 

“Is really good, but dangerous in larger amounts.” Percy said sadly.

 

** "Ambrosia and nectar." **

 

** "The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood." **

 

** A half-blood. **

 

** I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start. **

 

“The start usually works, young grasshopper.” Apollo said.

 

** Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!" **

 

** I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets. **

 

** "Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?" **

 

**** "Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."  
  
''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. 

 

“It’s almost the same as telling someone to ‘Go fuck yourself’ or ‘Go to hell’” Hestia explained.

 

“Hestia! Were did you learn such foul languages?” Zeus looked scandalized.

 

“You do know that I’m the oldest, right?” Hestia looked at her little brother like he was an idiot.

 

** "You don't stand a chance." **

 

** "We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?" **

 

** "Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares." **

 

“Yeah, my daughter will beat your ass, wimp.” Ares laughed. 

 

“What?!” He snarled at the smirks he got from the demigods.

 

** I blinked. "Like ... the war god?" **

 

** Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?" **

 

** "No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell." **

 

** Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy." **

 

** "Percy." **

 

** "Whatever. Come on, I'll show you." **

 

** "Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say. **

 

** "Stay out of it, wise girl." **

 

“Wait, wait, wait…” Thalia said. “That’s were ‘wise girl’ comes from?”

 

Then she and Nico started to laugh so hard that they fell of the couch. Percy and Annabeth were blushing and Percy was hiding his face in Annabeth hair.

 

**** Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.  
  
I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.

 

** I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns. **

 

“Maybe we should build self-cleaning toilets?” Apollo muttered. “Is that something you could build, Hephaestus?”

 

“I think I can whip something together.” Hephaestus said starting to draw plans and blueprints in a notebook.

 

“Don’t worry kids.” Apollo smiled at the demigods. “If anyone can do it it’s Hephaestus, he’s a genius.”

 

Hephaestus smiled at the praise and started to put a little more thought in his friendship with Apollo and Hermes. ‘Maybe they weren’t so bad, just misunderstood, like him.’

 

** Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there. **

 

** "Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking." **

 

“That was such a bad insult.” Hermes groaned.

 

** Her friends snickered. **

 

** Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers. **

 

“I was not!” Annabeth looked insulted.

 

“Wise girl, I love you, but you kind of were.” Percy shrugged.

 

Annabeth glared at him. Then she sighed at nodded in consent.

 

** Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't. **

 

** Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.  **

 

“Water powers activate.” Nico smirked. “She’s going to get her ass whopped.”

 

** I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me. **

 

** I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall. **

 

** She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away. **

 

Everybody laughed at the mental image.

 

** As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started. **

 

** The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock. **

 

“You’re lucky it was only shower water, seaweed brain.” Annabeth punched Percy in the arm.

 

** I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing. **

 

“That’s awesome!” Hermes and Apollo high fived each other and then Percy.

 

** I stood up, my legs shaky. **

 

** Annabeth said, "How did you ..." **

 

** "I don't know." **

 

** We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead." **

 

“You don’t look dead to me, but I could be wrong.” Thalia poked at Percy. “No he’s still alive.”

 

** I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth." **

 

** Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet. **

 

** Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her. **

 

** "What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?" **

 

** "I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag." **

 

“And that’s the end of the chapter.” Apollo said closing the book. “Who wants to read.”

 

“I’ll read next.” Hades said and took the book.

 

** “My dinner goes up in smoke.” **

 


	8. My dinner goes up in somke

**My dinner….**

Before Hades could continue there was a knock on the door and in came Persephone and Amphitrite.

“What are you two doing here?” Zeus asked and was promptly hit over the head by Hera who hissed “Manners.”

“I got a note from the Fates that told me to come here and read these books about a demigod with you.” Persephone explained.

“I got the same note.” Amphitrite nodded.

Two thrones appeared, one beside Hades and the other beside Poseidon. The aforementioned gods then summarized what they had read and who the demigods where.

Amphitrite started to hiss at Poseidon, “Should’ve just ripped your balls of and made them into earrings.”

“Please continue, brother.” Poseidon told Hades.

**My dinner goes up in smoke.**

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

“I’m sorry.” Percy whispered to Annabeth.

“You’re such a seaweed brain.” She snickered quietly back.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

**"Whatever."**

**"It wasn't my fault."**

“Liar!” Nico stood up dramatically and pointed at Percy. “You shall burn in the seventh layer of hell. No…wait…. Sorry, wrong religion.”

There was quiet laughter around the room.

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

**"Who?"**

**"Not who. What.**

“Rude.” Apollo pouted.

“I’m sorry, Lord Apollo.” Annabeth said.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m not mad, I’m only joking.” Apollo smiled.

**The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

“You kind of are, sort of, I guess.” Hermes nodded.

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

“Is that jealousy I hear?” Aphrodite asked with a small smirk.

“They’re twelve.” Athena sneered.

“You really don’t have a single fun bone in your body, do you?” Aphrodite was shaking her head.

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

“Wait, after everything, THAT’S what made you want to go home?” Thalia asked.

“I think it had more to do with that everting just come crashing down at that moment.” Percy shrugged.

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

“I can understand calling Nico mentally disturbed,” Thalia frowned. “But me, that’s just mean and wrong.”

“You don’t really live at camp so I don’t think you’re actually technically included.” Percy said quickly so Thalia didn’t sap him with lightning.

“Oh, okay then. Carry on with the reading.” Thalia nodded.

**"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

**"I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

“No, she meant half chimpanzee.” Apollo said with a smile.

“You really are dumber than you look.” Athena sneered at Apollo who lost his smile and sank down slightly.

“He’s not really wrong, at least according to “science”.” Artemis said in Apollos defense. “According to “science”, humans are related to apes and chimpanzee are apes.”

Before Athena could start a rant about “science” Persephone nudged Hades to start reading again.

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

**"That's ... crazy."**

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

“Some have a really hard time keeping it their fucking pants.” Amphitrite snarled.

Apollo started to laugh his as of.

“What’s wrong with you?” Hera asked.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just, the unintentional pun about “keeping it in their fucking pants” Apollo explained and kept laughing. Many of the other gods joined in with the laughing.

**"But those are just—" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

**"Then who's your dad?"**

“That’s a bit sexist, don’t you think?” Persephone asked.

“Not really. I mean in the myths you basically only hear about the male gods having children with mortals.” Aphrodite said.

“When you’re tight, you’re right.” Persephone smiled.

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."**

**"He's human."**

“No, he’s an alien from a galaxy far far away.” Nico said seriously.

“You’ve seen Star Wars?” Percy asked perplexed.

“What’s Star Wars? And how can stars fight a war, that doesn’t make any sense.” Nico looked confused and on the border of freaked out.

“It’s not about stars it’s…you know what, never mind.” Percy threw his hand up in the air with a sigh. Annabeth and Thalia were snickering quietly at them.

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

“The wicked witch from the west.” Artemis smirked. Everybody laughed at the look that Athena had on her face.

“Oh, Artemis,” Hermes said, wiping a fake tear from the corner of his eye.” You’re absolutely golden.”

“Nha, that’s Apollo. I’m silver, which, honestly, is the better color.” Artemis sassed.

“I’m too happy to actually argue against that.” Apollo smiled at his sister.

**"Cabin six."**

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

“I’m starting to lose my pride in my mom with the way she’s acting.” Annabeth confided quietly to the demigods and Grover.

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

**"And my dad?"**

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

“Yes, she did.” Percy said.

“Did uncle P tell her?” Hermes asked.

“Yes, and my mom is also clear sighted.” Percy explained.

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

“He did…does…going to? Okay this time travel and different time lines is confusing.” Percy rubbed the back of his neck.

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.**

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

“I claim all my children and I love them all equally.” Apollo said, looking offended.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know any of you, except my mom, personally at that time.” Annabeth shrugged.

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at YancyAcademy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

“Some of us try too, but sometime our duties get in the way and the children slip through the gaps.” Aphrodite looked sad.

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

“Safest place for greek half-blood.” Nico nodded. “What do you mean “greek” half-bloods?” Annabeth asked. The gods started to look at each other, worried.

“Nothing special, just that you also call a person with mixed heritage half-blood, but then it’s an insult.” Nico explained with a shrug.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Annabeth agreed. The gods breathed a sigh of relief.

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

“Sometimes you’re scarily observant.” Annabeth told Percy while the other demigods and Grover nodded in agreement.

“It’s a gift.” Percy winked and laughed.

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

“Who is the councilor in my cabin and what do they study in college?” Aphrodite asked.

“Silena Beauregard and she studies fashion at Parson school of design in New York.” Annabeth smiled.

“My cabin?” Hephaestus looked curious.

“Charles Beckendorf and I think he studies jewelry design and metalsmithing at Art center in New York, but I’m not sure.”

“Before anyone else askes about their children I think we should keep reading and maybe you can ask later.” Hestia said kindly and the others agreed.

**"Why did you come so young?"**

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time ..."**

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

**"Ambrosia."**

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"**

“Absolutely.” Percy nodded.

“Like what?” Thalia looked skeptical.

“Like that in many languages in the world the word for jellyfish is medusa after the “mythological” Gorgon Medusa, whose snake for hair suggested jellyfish tentacles and that the larges jellyfish ever found was a lion’s mane jellyfish with a diameter of 7ft 6in (228,6cm) and 120ft (3657,6cm) long tentacles.” Percy told them all proudly.

“I meant about the summer solstice, you dumbo.” Thalia sighed. “Why do you know all that anyway?”

“I want to become a marine biologist.” Percy said with a shrug.

**"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

**She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."**

“You’ve been to Olympus?” Persephone asked. Before anyone could answer Hades smiled at his wide and read the next sentence.

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

“Oh, oops.” Persephone giggled with a fetching blush.

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

**"But... how did you get there?"**

“You follow the yellow brick road to platform 9 ¾ and get on the train. Dhu!” Artemis said like it was obvious.

Hermes and Apollo started to hum “follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, follow follow follow follow follow the yellow brick road…♪♫♪”

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. EmpireStateBuilding, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?"**

“No, I’m the first emperor of Mars.” Percy said pompously.

“Hmm, kinky.” Aphrodite raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

“Huh?” Percy and the demigods looked confused.

“I think he meant the planet, darling.” Hephaestus smiled kindly at his wife.

“Oh, that makes more sense.” Aphrodite blushed and grabbed her husbands hand.

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the EmpireStateBuilding, but I decided not to point that out.**

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem ..."**

“Careful Annie, your hybrids are showing.” Thalia whispered to Annabeth.

“I know,” Annabeth whispered back. “And don’t call me Annie.”

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

“As I said, scarily observant.” Annabeth agreed with her earlier words.

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.. . . ..**

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

“He wasn’t.” Hermes said proudly.

“You don’t even know him, he hasn’t been born.” Athena sneered.

“True, but he’s my future son and I know that my children wouldn’t lie about something like that.” Hermes fired back.

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

“Is it a crush?” Aphrodite looked exited. “When you’re older, you’ll make a great couple.”

“That’s very kind of you but I’m with Annabeth.” Percy said, holding Annabeth’s hand.

“For now.” Aphrodite smiled mysteriously. Annabeth and Percy looked at each other nervously.

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

“That’s actually one of the nicer ways someone described me.” Hermes smiled. “Usually they go with God of Thieves.

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.**

“I hope not.” Hermes looked worried.

“It didn’t.” Thalia reassured.

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

“That is very sweet of him to say.” Hestia smiled.

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

“Hey, I showed you around.” Annabeth said, offended.

“Yeah, but you weren’t very nice about it.” Percy shrugged.

“Hmm, I guess you’re right. This time.” Annabeth smiled.

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp."**

**"Somebody special?"**

“Yes, someone who could brave the danger and find the new world.” Apollo laughed.

**"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

“Hey, Hephaestus, do you think you could build a table that automatically grows longer if there’re no more room?” Hermes asked.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Hephaestus nodded.

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

“Poor Chiron, he must feel left out.” Hestia looked sad.

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

“Chocolate shake.” Thalia said.

“I prefer vanilla.” Percy admitted.

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke."**

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.. . . . .**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

Hera nodded, “That’s what good sons do.” She then sneered at her male step-children.

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

**"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

“Really, seaweed brain?” Thalia looked at Percy.

“What?! How should I have known? If you recall, I didn’t se the film.” Percy defended himself.

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

**"You're kidding."**

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

**I was next.**

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

**Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**

“I sacrifice to mad dad most of the time but sometimes I sacrifice to other to?” Percy said.

“To whom do you sacrifice and why?” Poseidon asked.

“Well, I sacrifice to Hermes if I’m going on a quest. To Apollo when I have art class. Hestia because she’s the best aunt ever. Aphrodite when I’m going out with Annabeth etc. etc.” Percy explained. The mentioned gods looked happy and Poseidon smiled proudly at his son.

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag. It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

“Ares tried.” Apollo snickered. “It didn’t work and he ended up in the infirmary after two days.”

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

“Yeah!” Ares fist pumped the air.

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

“Oh, I get it.” Aphrodite laughed.

“What?” The other gods asked.

“When the demigods just arrived and where about to introduce themselves Percy said his name and Nico asked if he didn’t mean “Peter Johnson”.

The others remembered and laughed along with Aphrodite.

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

**That was my first day at CampHalf-Blood.**

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

“That sounds ominous.” Apollo looked worried, he really liked the demigods that had arrived.

“Don’t worry, cuz.” Percy shrugged with one shoulder. “We are the champions, my friends”

“And we’ll keep on fighting ‘til the end.” Thalia continued.

“We are the champions.” Annabeth hummed.

“We are the champions.” Grover agreed.

“No time for losers.” Nico nodded.

“’Cause we are the champions of the world.” They all finished togheter.

There was a smattering of applause around the throne room and the demigods and Grover bowed jokingly.

“I’m assuming that the chapter is over?” Poseidon asked and when Hades nodded he said, “Great, I’ll read next.” Poseidon took the book and cleared his throat.

**“We capture a flag.”**


	9. We Capture a Flag

**“We capture a flag.”**

“Finally, some action.” Ares looked like a demented, exited five-year-old.

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

“What about now, seaweed brain?” Annabeth looked like there would be consequences if he answered wrong.

“Now I can read a lot more but I sometimes still get a headache.” Percy explained quickly.

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

“Where was he standing?” Apollo asked with an incredulous look.

“Behind me, I think.” Percy blushed and shrugged.

“I don’t think even me or my sister can help you with that.” Apollo said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, it doesn’t really bother me and if I need some long-distance fighters I’ll just ask Thalia or Will.” Percy said with a smile.

“Who’s Will?” Artemis asked.

“Will Solace son of Apollo and the best archer at camp.” Nico explained with a small smile.

Apollo smiled at the mention of one of his future sons

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

“I never thought about it like that.” Thalia said while Grover was laughing at the mental image.

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

“That’s my girl.” Ares crowed.

**"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

“I know you’re not but I would be proud if you were.” Hermes smiled at Percy.

**Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back....**

“Dum dum duh….” Nico said in his spookiest voice.

“You are weird.” Thalia stated.

“I like you too, cuz” Nico smirked.

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

“I’m the god of the seas, not the god of cellphones.” Poseidon laughed.

“Is there one?” Percy asked.

“One what?” Poseidon looked confused.

“God of cellphones?” Percy clarified and the rest of the tome travelers looked interested.

“Not as such, I think the closest is Hermes actually.” Poseidon scratched his chin.

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at CampHalf-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

“Of course he was, he was the best swordsman at camp at that point.” Annabeth said.

“Was?” Hermes asked, worried.

“Yeah, someone came along and took the spot from him.” Annabeth smiled.

“Wonder who that could’ve been?” Grover smirked and looked at Percy from the corner of his eye.

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

“Why is that?” Percy asked. “The only blade I really feel comfortable in using is Riptide.”

“That is because Riptide was forged in the sea.” Amphitrite said. “You are a child of the sea and will always prefer weapons from your fathers’ domain.”

“That makes a lot of sense.” Percy nodded. “Thanks for explaining.”

Amphitrite only nodded at him and thought to herself, ‘Maybe he isn’t so bad, at least he’s polite.’

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

“Use protection.” Aphrodite cackled. “And I know, I’m so not the right person to say that.”

Persephone closed her mouth with a quiet laugh.

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

**The camper snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!**

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

At that sentence Poseidon had to stop reading because he was laughing so hard.

“What’s so funny?” Hermes asked.

“Water......head……Luke……screwed….” was the only thing they could hear through Poseidon’s laughter.

Those that understood or knew what happened joined in with the laughter.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

Here Poseidon started to chuckle again.

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

“Not likely.” Poseidon smirked.

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

“NO chans the punk can do it.” Ares sneered.

“Wanna bet?” Hermes and Apollo said. They knew something was up with the way there uncle was acting.

“Twenty drachmas?” Ares said.

“Deal!” Apollo and Hermes chorused.

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"**

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

**Clang.**

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

“HA!!! Pay up loser.” Hermes said while Apollo was doing a victory dance.

“B-b-b-but how?!” Ares screamed.

“Water.” Poseidon said smugly.

**The other campers were silent.**

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

“Never apologize for something like that, dear nephew.” Hades smirked.

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**

“He’s such a nice boy, being proud even if he lost.” Hestia smiled and Hermes looked proud.

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword... ."**

“No, you don’t, it’s scary.” Nico shuddered remembering what happened after Percy’s little dip in the Styx. **Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

“Rather the wall then a real volcano.” Hephaestus said.

The time travelers started to laugh.

“What?” Hephaestus looked perplexed.

“Spoilers.” They laughed.

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

“Thank you for wanting to find my son.” Hermes smiled at Grover.

**"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"**

“Stop with the negativity, brah.” Apollo said, which made them laugh at him.

**"Of course I'd want you along!"**

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

“I could teach you to knit if you want?” Thalia offered.

“You can knit?” Nico asked wide eyed.

“We all have our talents.” Thalia defended.

“Yeah, but knitting?” Nico raised an eyebrow.

“Just shut up, death breath.” She shook her head. “Do you want me to teach you or not. Goat boy?”

“Err…sure” Grover answered, unsure.

“Good, then we’ll start when we get back to our time.” Thalia nodded decisively.

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

“More along the lines of my hunters needing a place to sleep when they are at camp.” Artemis shrugged.

**"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

“No, because I don’t get one.” Hades sneered but you could also see the hurt in his eyes. Persephone squeezed his hand while Poseidon smiled sadly at his older brother.

“Yet.” Nico and Percy coughed.

“Huh?!”

“Nothing.”

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

“We all know that Hestia is the most powerful of them all.” Percy said like it was obvious.

“I cannot disagree with that statement.” Poseidon confessed and some of the other gods nodded in agreement.

Hestia blushed and smiled.

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

“No, I meant Henry, Joe and Allan.” Grover said sarcastically.

“Did you just take those names from the tv-show ‘The Flash’?” Percy asked.

“What?! It’s a good show.” Grover defended.

“You’re obsessed, Goat Boy.” Percy shook his head.

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

“I’m sorry.” Grover said. “I had not known anything outside of the things we learned at camp at that time.”

“Which is very discriminating if you think about it.” Nico mumbled.

**"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

**Thunder boomed.. . . . . ..**

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself.**

“Cheaters should be hanged by their balls in a flagpole until their equipment falls of.” Percy scooted away from a snarling Annabeth.

“That’s not a bad idea.” Amphitrite smirked at her husband, but the mischievous look in her eyes showed that she was joking, sort of.

**When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia .. . well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

**"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

“WHAT?!” Zeus thundered. “No one shall touch my baby girl, you hear me.” He glared at everybody around the room. Thalia blushed but at the same time felt a small ball of happiness in her chest.

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

**"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

**"No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

“I knew you were lying but I didn’t want to upset you.” Grover said.

“Thanks man.” Percy smiled.

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

“EGO ALER, EGO ALERT,” Nico said loudly.

“Shut up.” Percy laughed along with the others.

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

“I was.” Grover shrugged.

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

“It’s going to be epic.” Apollo said with a faraway look in his eyes.

“Why do you say that, brother?” Artemis asked.

“I don’t know, it just a feeling I have.” Apollo smiled.

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

“No. those are the flamingos dresses that we just wish to hang on poles.” Thalias voice was dripping with sarcasm.

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"**

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."**

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.**

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

Everybody was sitting in anticipation for the games, even the demigods who knew how it was going to end.

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

“Yes and a tip, if you don’t know how to use them, stick them with the pointy end.” Nico explained seriously to the others, who laughed at him. “What? I’m trying to help you and you laugh at me, rude much.”

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

“You looked ridiculous.” Annabeth giggled. “Like a little boy wearing his fathers clothes.”

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

**She kept marching.**

“Sorry.” Annabeth whispered to Percy. Percy just smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

“For all I knew you could have been a son of Hermes.” Annabeth explained.

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

“We should go bowling sometime.” Percy said with Nico nodding like a bobblehead beside him.

“That sounds like a lot of fun.” Amphitrite said. “But I want Artemis on my team.”

“Why do you want Artemis on your team specifically?” Poseidon asked his wife.

“She doesn’t miss.” Amphitrite shared a smirk with Artemis.

“Can you even have teams in bowling?” Nico asked confused.

“No idea.” Percy admitted.

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

“Do we?” Hermes asked.

“No clue, but if we don’t we should get it.” Apollo answered

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Apollo mumbled so only Hermes and Artemis could hear him.

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

“Yes!!!” Ares roared.

“Calm down crazy, your Ares is showing.” Apollo said.

“Isn’t it the other way around?” Hermes asked.

“Don’t know, but it works either way.” Apollo laughed.

“To true, brother dearest.” Artemis nodded.

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**

“Burn, sucker, burn.” Ares laughed with a crazed look in his eyes.

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

**"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**

**"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

“You never, NEVER, give away the position of the flag, seaweed barin.” Annabeth slapped Percy over the head.

“First: Owwww.” Percy said rubbing his head. “Second: Who said I was pointing the right way to the flag?”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Annabeth said with a sheepish smile.

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

“Ohhh, BURN!!” Herms crowed.

“Would you like some Aloe Vera with that.” Apollo laughed.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege.**

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.**

Poseidon started to cackle and Amphitrite had an evil little smile on her face.

**They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

“They are so screwed.” Apollo, Hermes and Artemis laughed.

**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

“Awesome!!!” Apollo said.

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

Everybody except Ares cheered at the victory.

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

“Yes, that was my perfect plan, get a kid a didn’t really know pulverized.” Annabeth nodded.

“Ha, I knew it.” Percy pointed an accusing finger at her, Then they laughed and high-fived.

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

“Chainsaw.” Apollo nodded.

**"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."**

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

“Water powers are awesome.” Nico said. “But I think I prefer shadow traveling.”

“I agree.” Percy nodded. “Shadow traveling is such a rush.”

**"I—I don't get it," I said.**

**Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

**"What—"**

**"Just do it."**

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me.** **I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

“Yeah and there is the downside.” Percy groaned.

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus...."**

“I can understand why, he is the one who has the hardest time to keep it in his pants.” Hera sneered.

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"**

“You have bit of a hard time to understanding the whole ‘brain hardwired for ancient greek’ don’t you.” Athena said in a condescending tone.

“And you seem to have a hard time understanding that we don’t really care what you think.” Artemis said in the same tone.

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

“Annabeth to the rescue, like usually.” Thalia snickered.

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

**It was looking straight at me.**

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast.**

“Thank you for trying to protect my son.” Poseidon said gratefully.

**It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

**By some miracle, I was still alive.**

The room sighed in relive but some of them still looked worried about Percy even though he was sitting in the room.

**I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

**"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."**

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

“Who would do something so mean?” Hestia seemed really sad at the mere thought.

“The world can be a cruel place, my lady.” Nico smiled sadly. “The only thing we can do about it is to try to be the best that we can be and help those that need it.”

“That was beautiful Nico.” Hestia smiled.

“My mom used to say that to me when I was younger.” Nico blushed.

“She seems to have been a very smart, insightful woman.” Hestia hugged Nico when she saw the tears in his eyes.

“She really was.” He mumbled.

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

“Was she dropped on her head as a child or is she just dumb?” Hermes asked.

“The second one I think.” Apollo said back

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

**"I'm okay."**

“Sliced like shish kebab, but fine.” Apollo agreed.

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry...."**

“Did you just apologize for healing?” Hermes laughed.

Percy smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."**

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses.** **Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

“And that’s that.” Poseidon said. “Who wants to read next?”

“I’ll read.” Hephaestus reached for the book.

**“ I Am Offered a Quest…”**

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> And... done. Well at least the prolog.  
> Hope you liked it.  
> Til next time  
> Love Nyxi


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